


at the end of many worlds

by eugyne (AreteNike)



Series: black holes and revelations [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Established Relationship, Flashbacks, Heavy Angst, M/M, bonding with allura and coran? GOT THAT TOO, dont be scared off by the tags i swear both keith and at least one shiro survive okay, dont say i didnt warn you, mcd tag for many many alternate realities and the people in them, not even close to canon compliant since s1 lmao, sheith? uhhhhhhh, the m rating is for all the death, travel between universes/dimensions/realities/what have you, violence tag for all the DEATH, whats that? you wanted more dimension hopping? you got it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 14:42:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15865701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eugyne
Summary: After leaving his mark on so many worlds, what made him think there would be no consequences?





	at the end of many worlds

**Author's Note:**

> ~~oh my god im actually in a huge hurry right now and i will fix the formatting and blather on about feelings LATER SORRY BYE LOVE YOU ALL <33333~~
> 
> HI SO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HTBABA,,, and this series as a whole. two whole years can you BELIEVE. im excited to finally get this thing out to yall!! if youre worried about the tags ITLL BE OKAY I PROMISE, keith and shiro BOTH SURVIVE. at least one shiro survives. ANYWHO this is in fact the LAST fic in this series, its officially done, thats IT. im FREE. thanks for sticking around <333
> 
> if you havent read how to be anything but alone or there's no night or day in space... go do that. kinda important for understanding this fic. anyway ENJOY~!
> 
> art by [unstoppable-setsuna-f-seiei](http://unstoppable-setsuna-f-seiei.tumblr.com/) ([art](http://unstoppable-setsuna-f-seiei.tumblr.com/post/177639908991/scene-from-at-the-end-of-many-worlds-by-aretenike)) and [hauntedorange](https://hauntedorange.tumblr.com/) ([art](http://hauntedorange.tumblr.com/post/177672300349/my-tiny-contribution-to-the-sheith-big-bang-i-was))

Keith’s mother shows up to interrupt movie night often enough that, this time, Keith almost doesn’t realize anything’s wrong. Almost, because she’s silhouetted by the movie, but she’s clutching her arm and panting for breath, and in the thin edge of light around her he sees a wet and vibrant red.

"Keith," she gasps, "she figured it out. She killed everyone." And then she collapses.

Lance is the first to move, lurching out of his blanket to turn on the lights and stop the movie, and the motion spurs Keith into action. He scrambles off Shiro and the couch to kneel at his mother's side, quickly checking over her injuries—nothing life-threatening on its own, but there are many burns all over her arms and torso and a deep cut at her elbow. Blood loss took her down, or shock, he thinks, carefully checking her head for injury—it’s bruised from the fall but nothing else. He looks up.

"Allura—"

"I'll ready a pod," she responds, already half out the door.

"Hunk? Can you—"

"Yep, got her." Hunk stoops to gather her up into his arms; she stirs a little but doesn't wake. And then he's trailing off after Allura, leaving Keith kneeling on the blood-smeared floor.

His hands are blood-smeared, too, and shaking.

He’s been a lot of places, seen a lot of things, but nothing could have prepared him for this. He never loses anyone, never, not since he left the Garrison.

And his mother—there’s only _one_ of her.

"Keith." Shiro's hand grips his shoulder. "She'll be fine. Come here. Lance—"

"Yep." The two of them each grip one of his arms and lift him to his feet. They all but drag him out of the room until he finds his stride.

The pod is just sliding shut when they arrive, and Shiro guides him over to the sink to wash the blood away. Keith stares at his hands until Shiro turns on the water for him.

"She'll be fine!" Coran calls, and Keith finally washes up.

"She," he says finally, scrubbing hard. "She said 'she figured it out.' Who is _she?_ " His first thought is the Galra—they’ve been predicting team Voltron’s every move almost as soon as they think it, lately, but why would they target his mother? How would they know about her, let alone _get_ to her? She had to have come from Altea, back in the universe she lives in, which means it had to be a local threat or someone that can travel like they can, but _who—_

"Are you okay?" Allura asks, derailing his train of thought. He turns off the water.

"Fine." His hands have stopped shaking, at least. "I need to... go. I need to find out what she was talking about."

"Keith, wait," says Shiro, one hand on his back and the other offering a towel. "It might still be dangerous."

“Agreed,” says Allura. “Keith—”

"I'll be quick." He can't stand to leave this a mystery—not with the feel of his mother's blood on his hands so fresh in his memory. It could be dangerous, but it could mean the difference between life and death if whatever attacked her followed her here.

"Shit," he says aloud, dropping the towel and interrupting Allura’s rebuttal. "What if she was followed? You have to—" He glances at Shiro, and God isn't this a great idea to spring on him when they've only just learned to satisfy his paranoia. "You've got to search the Castle, if this 'she' came after her—"

"We will," Shiro says quickly. "Keith—"

"I have to do this." Keith looks down at his hands again, clean as they are, and clenches them into fists. He looks back up. "I promise I'll come back."

Shiro breathes in, breathes out. Allura still looks unsure, but Shiro nods.

"Stay safe," he says, and Keith nods and goes.

* * *

Altea is as Keith remembers it, at first glance. The planet's still there, for one thing, so it's not like this universe is following the path of the one he chose to stay in. The Hall of the Paladins is intact.

But... it's quiet here, and there are sirens in the distance, and smoke now that he's looking more closely. And then he sees the handful of bodies scattered around the plaza, the burn marks, the blood.

He starts running. Figure after figure long beyond saving—inside, the same, air thick with smoke. The stone columns are cracked and broken, the rug torn and burnt. He coughs.

Dammit. This was a peaceful universe, relatively. If his mom knew of anyone capable of this, she'd never told him.

There's a rustle ahead, small, and he hurries toward it—damn, he left his bayard behind again, but if nothing else, he has his knife—

"Keith," comes a cough. He looks up.

"Mavear?" There's someone there—someone hung up by his alchemist's robes on a snag of broken stone, high up a column. He stirs faintly.

"Did... did Erolia... get out?" Mavear wheezes.

"Yeah," Keith says, tucking away his knife. "She's gonna be okay. Lemme... I'm gonna get you down."

"No point," Mavear gasps, and Keith has to admit that even if it weren't a lost cause—by the wounds he can see from here, by the steady trickle of blood running down the column—he's not sure how he'd get him down, anyway. He could flicker up there, sure, but he wouldn't be able to carry Mavear back down...

"Who did this?" he asks finally.

"H-haggar," Mavear says, and Keith freezes. "Erolia said..."

Shit.

_Druids can teleport too._

"Do you have any idea what she was after?" Keith asks quickly. "Was it Voltron?"

"No..." Mavear says, and his voice is getting steadily weaker. "She just... just..." He trails off.

"Mavear?"

No response. _Damn_ it, if he could only take people with him—he wouldn't be beyond saving.

But if Mavear survived as long as he did, maybe there are others Keith can still help. He takes out his knife again, just in case, and presses further into the hall.

And, there are a few. Some injured, some in hiding—some Keith has a hell of a time convincing that it's over, it's fine now, Haggar is gone. He hopes it's true—he's seen no sign of her yet, and he doesn't think she'd stand idly by while he helps her victims.

But then, he still doesn't know why she was here, either, and he finds all the lions of this universe's Voltron right where they should be. It seems she came here just to slaughter everyone.

He stays a little while longer, helping those still alive to gather the victims as best they can. If she came here, though, she could easily have followed his mother back to the Castle, and he _knows_ the team can fight her off—they have before—but the moment it's clear things are under control here, he goes. Back through empty blackness to the infirmary, where his mother is still in a pod and Shiro is sitting in front of it, still waiting for him. Allura, thankfully, has left—he’s already been avoiding talking to her and Coran about his heritage and he doesn’t want to have to tell them another Altea’s been attacked, too.

"Are you hurt?" Shiro asks, probably because Keith is considerably bloodier now than when he left.

"None of it's mine," he says. "It was Haggar, Shiro. This universe's Haggar."

"Are you sure?" Shiro gets to his feet and comes closer, looking him over. "Did you fight her? What happened?"

Keith shakes his head. "She was already gone when I got there, but not everyone was dead. The place was half destroyed—I was helping whoever was left." He looks down at his hands, bloodied again. "She wasn't after their Voltron, though. I don't know why she did it. I don't even know how she got there—I guess it's the same ability I have. I guess she figured it out."

"If that’s the case, she may have followed your trail," Shiro says slowly. "Maybe she was looking for you. It wouldn't be the first time she went after you specifically."

Keith cringes. Last time she'd captured Shiro and Pidge both as bait and somehow managed to block him from jumping in or out. That was the only reason he'd met his mother at all—and he wouldn't put it past Haggar to go after her too. He didn't realize she could have followed his trail—

"Shit," he realizes. "The other universes."

"What?"

"The other—you guys, in other universes. If she's following my trail back she's going to—" He chokes, covering his mouth with his hand. All those versions of his friends—and some of those places were close enough that maybe they could defend against her, but others...

"Keith," Shiro says urgently, cupping his face to force him to look up at him. "This is another trap. She's after you, remember? If you go back to those places, she'll catch you, and we can't all come with you to help, not until Pidge finishes her transporter—"

"I can't just _leave_ them!" Keith leans into his hands. "It's like—do you remember that thing my mom said when she came here, about why she never visited me, she said she knew I was safe so she never—"

"I remember," Shiro says, and sighs. "And now you know they aren't safe, so you need to go back and save them. I get it. But that doesn't mean it isn't a trap—or that Zarkon won't know we're down a paladin."

Fuck, that's right. Those other teams might be vulnerable, but this one is too.

"This might be our chance, too, if Haggar is away," Shiro adds. "You realize that, right?"

"Yeah." Keith closes his eyes. He has a responsibility here, in this universe he chose—but he's no more able to abandon his past friends than those here, for all that he left them behind. And they have no idea what's coming. "I—I'm just going to warn them, whoever's left. And then I'll come right back."

"If you need to do this, at least go get Matt, first. If he takes Blue and Lance goes back to Red, we can still form Voltron without taking Allura away from the Castle."

"I can't take anyone with me."

"You can take that damned hopper thing with you and guide him back."

Keith opens his eyes. "I—probably, I guess."

Shiro gives him a grim smile. "It's a plan, then."

It takes longer than Keith would like to explain the situation to Matt, longer than he can stand for Matt to rush around gathering his things, and no, he can't take a duffel bag, it'll get left behind, he can only take what he can _wear,_ and _no_ Keith doesn't know why, that's just how it is and can he _hurry up_ already.

At least Matt refrains from cooing over his sister's genius when Keith hands him the dimension-hopping device.

But he gets Matt to the Castle and Matt goes to talk tech with Pidge and maybe get his own set of paladin armor ("Can I get orange? Is orange taken? Or like a different green?") and finally Keith can go.

"Be safe," Shiro says into his temple, squeezing him tight for a second before he steps back.

"I'll try," Keith says, with a smile he doesn't feel, and goes.

* * *

_Keith is in a forest again._

_All things considered, he does like forests, but there's something to be said for knowing what's different about each world right away. Trees look pretty much like trees everywhere—different trees, maybe, but these look like ones he’s seen before, the kind that turn red in the fall. Besides, forests have creatures in them, and they're not necessarily friendly._

_Creatures like whatever just chirped behind him._

_He spins, fearing another thrata incident—it isn't a thrata, those are probably unique to that universe, but it_ is _what he can only think to call a small, red dragon. Or maybe only a young dragon; something in its proportions makes him think it's a child, and it's as tall as he is, so small probably isn't the right word either way._

_It chirps again, tilting its head inquisitively. At least it doesn't seem hungry._

_"Hi," Keith says cautiously._

_It trills quietly and shuffles forward, peering at him. He lifts a hand cautiously, ready to jerk back if it opens its mouth, but it just butts into it like a cat._

_"You seem friendly," he tells it, and it chirps and licks his cheek. He yelps and wipes at his face—its tongue is rough like a cat's, too—and then freezes, because there's suddenly hot air blowing against his scalp. "What are you—"_

_"Huh," says Lance somewhere behind him. "Well, I guess this isn't the first time we found a new rider in the middle of the woods."_

_"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you," Pidge says flatly, and Keith turns in as dignified a way as he can manage while there's a dragon thoroughly invested in messing up his hair._

_"Um. Hello," he says. Lance is leaning against a rather larger blue dragon, arms crossed; Pidge is draped over the shoulders of a smaller green, looking thoroughly bored. She gives him a little wave._

_"Welcome to the family, I guess," she says. "Hope you like dragons, because she sure likes you."_

* * *

After so long, the green of the forest is a shock on his senses. It's vibrant, lush—it must be summer here. The sun is high and the breeze too warm to relieve the heat.

And the forest is completely silent.

The camp that used to be here is gone, but it hasn't been gone long—it was here when he came back to apologize. And the space they'd cleared, the paths they'd trodden to dirt haven't been overgrown yet. The war had just ended, after all, so it made sense they'd give it a bit before they'd pack up and head back towards the capital.

But the silence is more than the lack of the people he expected here. There are no birds chirping, no squirrels and other creatures rustling and squeaking. No sign of life at all, only the wind in the leaves.

That, more than anything else, sets him on edge.

He scans the ground for any sign of disturbance and finds the old leaves and dirt ruffled at his own feet, though he hasn't moved yet. He turns carefully in place; there's an obvious trail leading off into the trees behind him, the ground disturbed liked something had been dragged lightly over it. Like the robes of a druid. Of course—if Haggar had followed his trail, she'd land right here, precisely here.

He doesn't need to walk to find his team, though, not when he can home in on them and jump there. So he does.

He... had known, on some level, that it would be too late as soon as he noticed the tracks Haggar had left, but seeing it is another matter. His friends' bodies strewn around the still-glowing embers of the campfire, the stench of blood and rot already setting in in the heat; the massive scorched skeletons of their dragons crushing the tents they lived in, trees and structures knocked aside in their death throes. The bodies of other soldiers, too, lying here, tossed there, some strung up in the trees by their clothes like Mavear had been.

Total and complete devastation, and Keith the reason it ever happened.

He drops to his knees. He can't bring himself to look at Shiro but he does see the dagger still clutched in Pidge's hand, the vacant stare of Lance's clouded eyes. They'd been the ones to find him, here, at the beginning, the ones to take him in and teach him what it meant to be a paladin. They'd found him, but Red—Red had found him first.

He staggers back up to his feet. There's no way he'll know from the skeletons, but he stumbles to each one anyway, looking for any sign that they were _his._ There are shed scales everywhere in every color and his heart seizes at every glimpse of glimmering red but—it could be any of them. But if he can't find her, he's going to wonder, and hope will only hurt more.

"RED!" he screams at the top of his lungs, shattering the silence. "RED!"

And there's an answering bugle. Not Red's, he knows her voice even now, but... something. He heads towards it.

He finds the source down by the river, some ways away from camp in a small ravine. It's Shadow, Shiro's dragon, looking up at him, and curled with her is Red, alive.

But as Keith slides down the steep side of the ravine to join them, he can see Red's wounds, the way her chest rises and falls in sharp, shallow movements—she's injured. Shadow's wing rests protectively over most of her body but what Keith can see is bad enough.

She's probably going to die, too.

He kneels at her head and gently strokes her eye ridge until her eyelid peels back and her pupil fixes on him. She snorts and pushes weakly into his hand.

"I'm sorry," Keith tells her, because she's the only one left to hear it, her and Shadow.

The latter stretches her neck to nuzzle his shoulder. He pats her snout, too. Her injuries seem survivable, at least—when Red passes, she'll leave the camp, fly back to the capital. She'll find someone to bring back here, so that even if they don't know why this happened, they'll know it did. Maybe it will start another war. He doesn't know.

But they'll give everyone here the burial they deserve, at least. It's more than Keith can do—he doesn't have the time to linger.

He kisses Red's forehead one last time, and murmurs a thank you to Shadow, and gets to his feet. He takes a deep breath, and moves on.

* * *

Here we go again, _Keith thinks, looking up at the storefront he's appeared outside. "Charms, Spells, and Magical Consultations," the sign advertises. If it weren't for that, it could be any store in the world he was born in. Simple, contemporary, with just a little something out of the ordinary—that's what he's looking for right now. A taste of home._

_As though he still knows the meaning of home._

_He opens the door, and something jingles as he steps inside—a little too musical to be a physical bell. The little lights floating at the ceiling bob in the sudden draft._

_"Hi there!" Shiro greets from the counter. "What can I help you with today?"_

_Might as well just go for it, Keith figures._

__

_"I'm from another world," he says, and Shiro's smile falters a little._

_"O-oh. Well, that's a little outside my expertise," he begins, and Keith holds up a hand._

_"It's not a problem," he says. "I can get back on my own just fine. I'm a traveler."_

_Shiro blinks. Keith looks around the shop, festooned as it is with plants and books and candles and crystals and some things he can’t even name. He's never tried to do this so bluntly, but introductions don't get easier with time, either way._

_"I'm a tourist," he clarifies finally. "My name is Keith. Is there really magic here?"_

_And then Shiro gets it, and he laughs. "Yes, there is. Welcome to Earth, Keith."_

* * *

Shiro's shop, and the entire building it was part of, is already a smoking crater by the time Keith arrives. There's a small crowd, too, and police running tape around the scene—murmurs and whispers and the smell of burning. And either someone saw him appear out of thin air, or they noticed his subsequent gaping and alien armor, because one of the police officers approaches him within moments.

"Do you know anything about what happened here?" she asks.

There's not going to be much he can do here, Keith realizes. If the others are even still alive, the police are better equipped to protect them. So he nods.

"It was someone from another world," he says quickly. "She was after Shiro, specifically—Takashi Shirogane. Listen, there's a few other people—Katie and Matt Holt, Lance Diaz, Hunk Galeai, and Allura Altea—if she hasn't gotten to them already, she will soon, you gotta protect them."

The police officer scribbles this all down with furrowed brow. "How do you know this, exactly?"

"'Cause I pissed her off and now she's killing all my friends in multiple universes," he answers flatly. "I just came from one where she did the same thing, and I gotta go to the next and see if there's still time to save them there."

She looks increasingly suspicious the more he talks. She probably doesn't believe him—which means he has to go check on his friends himself, because the police are bound to drag their feet on that.

Shiro had believed him right away, when he'd told him, but—not everyone is like Shiro.

"I'm going to need you to come in so we can ask you a few questions," the officer says, and Keith sighs.

"Sorry, I can't," he says, and flickers off to where Lance should be.

He finds another crater. This one doesn't have a crowd, yet; it's a rougher part of town. People know to stay away. That, or it was just too recent. He sucks in a breath, goes to Hunk, finds yet more devastation. At Pidge's, the same; at Allura's, even more. She was the strongest of any of them—she probably held out the longest. But even her estate has been reduced to smoking rubble; even the grass along her lengthy driveway is dry and brown.

Chances are if Pidge is dead, so is Matt, but he goes to him anyway—and lands in his intact apartment, in front of where Matt is sitting on the sofa, startling them both.

"What the fuck," says Matt. "Keith?"

"She spared you," Keith says dumbly. And then, "Oh God, you don't know."

"Don't know what?" Matt stands and peers at him. "Are you okay? Why are you here all of a sudden, I thought you'd left for good?"

"I had." Keith swallows. "And I'm not okay, but it's not... You might still be in danger. The news should really come from someone else. But, I'm really, really sorry."

He... can't possibly tell him his sister's dead. He can't even imagine how to. Instead he just gives Matt a short, tight hug, barely giving him time to respond with a confused shoulder pat before he's stepping back.

"Take care of yourself, Matt," he says, and steps back from Matt's alarmed face, into darkness.

* * *

_Keith is pretty used to farmland at this point. He's... not really used to choking back sobs in the shadow of someone's cornfield, but hell, at least he's not in the middle of a city again._

_He's just so fucking tired._

_It's not really even that he liked the last world that much—if he could go back to any place he'd been, it'd be the Metroplex, or Atlantis, though it's been a couple years since he lived in either. Maybe that's why he looks back on them fondly—everything was fresh then. He didn't have the weight of so many memories pressing down on him every time he met his friends again. There used to be novelty in starting over; it was like replaying that one old video game they had in their hideout in the Metroplex, when Allura had powered down and everyone else was busy or sleeping—in those moments of quiet, he could redo it all, already knowing what path he would walk. He used to take comfort in knowing exactly what to expect._

_He's not sure which he'd prefer now: continuing a finished game, with all that history behind him, or finding a new game to play entirely._

_He gets up out of the dirt and steps into the darkness between dimensions. He'd noticed, subconsciously, that he'd left a trail—like footsteps through the multiverse. He follows them back._

_Their old Metroplex hideout is dark and dusty when he steps into it out of the nothing—of course it is, they'd been packing up to move when he'd left. Allura's console is dark; everyone's rooms are empty. The furniture is gone but Keith can still picture where he used to sit, there, playing that game. Where Shiro had kissed him._

_Right, that's why he left: Shiro. As always. And it's not like he can blame him for it; after all, the only constant here is Keith. He's not sure what it is he keeps doing to make Shiro fall in love with him but it has to be his fault._

_And a new game is probably too much to hope for._

_He stumbles back through the multiverse to the cornfield, and curls into the dirt and sobs. What can he do? He has to continue on—or else, go back to where he started, and fix his mistakes. Go to the one place he knows Shiro won't be there to love him._

_Everything in him rebels against the idea._

_It's a while, but not long enough, before footsteps approach with the rustle of corn. There's a shuffling as someone sits by him, and a hand falls gently on his shoulder._

_"Scary being a colonist, huh?" says Matt, which is a surprise but a welcome one, because Keith doesn't think he could stand to see one of the usual crew just yet. "I miss Earth, too. I was on one of the first transports in. But honestly, it's not so bad out here." He rubs Keith's shoulder slowly. "It's a fresh start, you know?"_

_Is it, Keith wonders. Can he have such a thing?_

_"But if you gotta let it out, that's fine, too. Nothing like a good cry," Matt continues. "My sister makes fun of me for it, but she cried over one of the crop bots short-circuiting the other day, so I don't think she gets to talk."_

_Pidge_ would _cry over a robot. Keith sits up slowly, wipes away the tears and dirt._

_"That's it," says Matt. "You ready to head back yet? There's still a lot of setting up to do, but it'll be home before you know it."_

_"Not yet," Keith says with a sniffle. "I... I want to stay out here a little longer."_

_"That's fine." Matt smiles, and just keeps rubbing his back. "Take all the time you need."_

* * *

There are still people screaming when Keith returns to the colony’s center. Still fires burning in and around the low plastic shelters, and still volunteers rushing to put them out. Still people out covering the bodies with sheets.

He catches a glimpse of a familiar tuft of white hair before a sheet drifts down over it and his stomach twists.

He barely gets to the nearest trash can in time before he's heaving into it. It was stupid of him to think he'd be able to be do this so easily, he reflects bitterly as he hiccups. Of course he wouldn't be in time to save some of them—of course it would hurt. They're his friends, even if he left them behind, he's already _realized_ that, but it wasn't like he could just undo it all. He could never _really_ start over anew.

He was always going to leave a piece of himself behind.

It was stupid of him, too, to teleport where Haggar could see—to bring someone from another universe to bear against her—to find out some other version of her was his _ancestor_ —to read in stolen files that _she_ was the one preventing him from jumping, that time Shiro was captured, and never consider _she might have this ability too._ To never consider she might _use_ it.

A hand lands lightly on his back, and another offers him a paper towel. He takes it, and looks up—the person is no one he recognizes. So he's been away long enough that a whole new wave of colonists has arrived.

"I can't believe it, either," the guy says. "So senseless..."

"Yeah," Keith croaks. He wipes his mouth and crumples the towel in his fist. "Who... who'd she kill?"

The guy doesn't question how he knows who did it—it's not so new that the word hasn't spread. "A lot," is what he says. "They said she seemed like she had targets, but everyone who got in her way, or was just... too close..." He takes a deep breath. "I don't know if they've identified everyone yet."

Keith lets out a long breath. "I saw Shiro."

The guy nods and rubs his shoulder through his armor. "He was... the first."

Keith struggles to breathe in again, and hangs his head. "Pidge and Matt? Hunk? Lance?"

The guy sighs. "Yeah. And Steph, and Mo... Raul... Terry... Adam..." He shakes his head. "Too many."

When Keith looks up, he sees the guy's eyes are unfocused. His hand is shaking against Keith's shoulder. Shock. And he's not the only one; for all the many people rushing around, putting out fires, covering bodies, there are just as many screaming, or crying, or standing vacantly, silent. It's a resilient sort of person that volunteers to be a colonist, but this... this could break anyone.

He gives the guy's shoulder a squeeze in turn, and gently dislodges his hand from his own shoulder, and tosses the towel in the trash.

"Thanks," he murmurs, and the guy nods, wide-eyed and silent. Keith waves someone over to take care of him, then walks away, into the fields, until the crying is muffled by the crops; only then does he move on to the next world.

* * *

_The next world is a city again, and seems pretty modern, judging by the distant sound of gasoline cars and the flickering streetlight across the road. Which is a shame, because Keith was hoping for a little excitement this time around. Working on a cruise ship was fun for about a week—and he was there for fifteen._

_Then again, he's in a dark dead-end alley, and a scruffy looking guy has just entered the far end. Keith quickly mentally clarifies to whoever might be listening that being mugged is_ not _the excitement he had in mind._

_At least he can probably climb out of here, if need be._

_"Don't make this hard on yourself," the guy says. Yep, he's about to be mugged._

_"I don't have any money," Keith says quickly, holding up his hands. "I've got, like, a crew ID badge for a cruise ship? That's all. Nothing of value."_

_"I'm not after_ money _," the guy growls—actually growls. Shit. That's not scruffiness, that's_ fur. _Okay._

_Keith turns and runs for the far wall. He leaps up and grabs onto the ledge above a window, pulling himself up as the guy snarls—he can hear his footsteps coming closer. Keith stretches up to the next window and climbs up, leans over and swings onto an AC unit that creaks ominously with his weight. From there, it's onto another window ledge, then a pipe—and, finally, the roof. The guy howls in anger and paces below but evidently isn't keen on taking the same route up._

_"You move like a hunter," a familiar voice says, "but you don't smell like one."_

_Keith turns away from the roof edge slowly. If Shiro is covered in fur, too, Keith is just gonna leave now._

_But no, he isn't—he looks human, except for his red eyes._

_"Do you have to be a hunter to do parkour?" Keith asks flatly, and Shiro grins. The moonlight glints off a pair of fangs._ Great.

_"I guess not," he says. "A guy like you isn't safe out here at this time of night, you know. You should come with me."_

_"I don't want to be what you are any more than I want to be whatever he was," Keith says, because God help him if he's really found a world with_ vampires. _And werewolves? He's not sure he really wants to know._

_Shiro shakes his head. "Allura's the only one who could, and she won't turn the unwilling," he says. "And you wouldn't be the only human under our protection, anyway. I promise no harm will come to you."_

_Well, he hasn't known Shiro to be a liar—and he can always just leave in an instant, anyway. What does he have to lose?_

* * *

It's more than a little jarring when Keith steps out of the darkness into Allura's warm parlor to find a merrily flickering fire and Allura and Lance both calmly reading in front of it. Even when Lance yelps at the sudden intrusion and falls off the sofa, Keith can do nothing but stare for a moment.

"Keith?" Allura says, as the door open and Shiro peers in. Something flickers across his face when they meet eyes, but it turns into concern and Keith shakes himself and takes a deep breath. He might be able to save them here—maybe.

"An enemy figured out how to follow my trail back through the universes—you have to run. All of you. She's coming to kill you." Keith reaches down to help a blinking Lance up off the floor. "I don't have time to explain more, she could be here any second, just—she's very powerful and very evil and she's already killed you in the last few universes because I was too late—"

"Keith," Lance interrupts, taking him by the shoulders. "Are you okay?"

And Keith stares at him, his friend—at those blue eyes he's already seen snuffed out today, and they probably will be again here, because how can a couple of vampires possibly stand against _her?_

"How could I possibly be okay?" Keith says numbly. "You're going to die."

He knows they don't have time. He knows, but he's trying, anyway.

"Keith," Shiro says behind him, and then the front door is blown off its hinges. It goes flying past the parlor doorway, crashing into the wooden stairs, and in the sudden silence that follows comes Haggar, druid robe whispering across the hardwood floor. She turns, and she sees them—she sees _him_ —and she smiles.

Allura jumps up. Lance spins. Keith reaches for his bayard but a strong hand grabs his arm and pulls him away. Shiro all but carries him into the next room and there's a crash and the crackling of energy behind him, shouting, and he has to fight—

"Go, Keith!" Shiro shouts in his ear. "Go—you can still save the rest of us. Go, for them, and—and for me. Please."

"No, I— _sorry_ ," Keith says, but Shiro doesn't look angry that all of this was Keith's fault. He smiles, instead, even though Lance screams behind him, even though the others throughout the house shout and the pounding of feet makes the ceiling shake.

"Just go," Shiro says again, "please, go." And then he lets go, and steps back, and turns away, and Keith's vision blurs but he goes.

* * *

_Keith is a little disappointed to find himself in a swaying laundry room this time around. He's probably on a ship—the kind that floats instead of flies—and the appliances look extremely normal, so he doesn't expect a whole lot from this place._

_Maybe that's good, though. The last world was... a lot. He may have been useful to them, may have befriended the team once again, may have been the one to defeat Zarkon, but when it came down to it, he didn't belong there. It wasn't a place for humans._

_The door clicks—it's Hunk who walks in, which he takes as a sign that this world will be more peaceful than the rest. That, and that he's holding a basket of laundry._

_"Um," says Hunk. "You're not supposed to be in here. This place isn't for guests—wait,_ are _you a guest?"_

_Keith looks down at his elven robe—he really should have snuck something out of the laundry while he had the chance._

_"In... a manner of speaking?" he offers, and Hunk goes pale._

_"Shit, I knew this cruise ship was haunted," he whispers, and hell, that assumption is so different it's welcome. Keith laughs._

_"No—not as far as I know," he says, and damn if he isn't looking forward to this impromptu vacation now. "Not by me. Do you need a hand?"_

* * *

There are gasps when he appears in the next world. He barely registers the tables, the crowd—mealtime for the cruise guests—before a small hand is yanking him forcefully away. It's Pidge this time, dragging him into the narrow hallway to fix him with an exasperated look.

"I know you're not the most subtle guy around, but if appearing out of thin air is gonna be a continuing thing with you, just don't make our lives harder with it," she says. "Now I have to go explain this shit."

Keith sniffles and wipes at his eyes with the back of one hand. The other he places against the vinyl wallpaper, steadying himself—it's not so big a ship that they can't feel the waves, and his sea legs are long gone, and shit, he's a little off balance right now anyway.

"Make someone else do it," he says. "You gotta get out of here, Pidge. You and everyone."

He realizes even as he says it that here, too, is a lost cause. They're on a cruise ship. Where are they going to run to? What can they do against Haggar's wrath? His friends, the whole ship—they're doomed.

Pidge's eyes narrow. "Why?"

"I... made an enemy," he says, "who can do what I do. She's... fighting everyone in another world right now, but... no one has survived her yet, and..." He trails off.

"...You’re kidding."

He looks at her. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

Pidge's face goes blank and pale. “Shit.”

"Please tell me you're at dock," he whispers, and her eyes are wide as she slowly shakes her head. They stare at each other in horror for a minute, until the door next to them opens again and Hunk comes out.

"I _thought_ I saw Keith," he says. "What are you—whoa, are you okay?"

Maybe the best thing he can do right now is continue on, Keith thinks. To find a world where his friends still have a chance, and warn them, so that at least not all of this was in vain. So that at least _someone_ is saved.

"I think... I think we're in trouble, Hunk," Pidge says. Keith buries his face in his hands.

"I'm so sorry," he moans. "Tell the others, I... I'm so sorry."

"We will," Pidge says. When he lowers his hands, she holds hers out for a hug; he picks her right up and tries to remember how to breathe. How can he possibly say goodbye?

"Okay," she says finally, after Hunk has joined in. "You should get going, I guess."

He sighs and puts her back down. She's even slighter here than in other universes—still sturdier than she looks, but without the muscle of fight after fight. She still looks up at him bravely.

"See you later," she says firmly.

"It's a promise," he says in kind. He pats Hunk's shoulder, too—he still just looks worried, and Keith wonders if Pidge will tell him or if it's better if he doesn't know—

He needs to stop thinking, just stop, and move on. He gives Pidge one last smile and steps into the darkness.

* * *

He goes home, this time. He shouldn't, but his throat hurts from holding back the sob that's been building for the past two universes, and from throwing up besides, and maybe he just needs to see his team again and know they're _going to be okay,_ in at least one universe.

The infirmary is empty when he enters, his mother's pod too; so it's been long enough she's healed. He makes his way out to the rec room, finds it empty, heads up to the bridge.

"Keith, you're back," Shiro says. Everyone's on the bridge, but while the paladins are gathered around the central display, the Alteans are standing off to one side—Allura, Coran, and his mother, talking quietly. Everyone stops when he comes in, though, and his mother meets his gaze; Keith tears his eyes away.

"I'm not done," he says, and leans face-first into Shiro's chest. Seeing everyone here is making his breath come easier, but he's going to have to go back—and soon. "I just wanted to make sure you guys were okay."

Shiro rubs his back, and he hears the others shuffle in closer. "Did she get to any of the other universes?"

Keith nods, eyes closed. "The most recent few. I was too late to save them... I just got ahead of her, but—I just came back from one where you guys are on a cruise ship. What're you—what're they gonna do? They're in the middle of the ocean, Shiro—"

He can't hold back the sob this time. Shiro sucks in a breath and suddenly his hands are on Keith's face, lifting it away from his chest.

"Open your eyes for me, Keith," he says gently, so Keith does, even though it causes the tears to spill down his cheeks. "See me? I'm _here._ There's still some of us you can save. All of us here—we're still here. We're okay. And the next places you go, you'll warn them, and they'll be okay, too."

"Yeah, we don't go down easy," Lance adds. Keith turns his head to look at him, and at Hunk and Pidge too, and Matt. They're right; this group, at least, is still here. He breathes deeply.

"I should go," he says finally, hoarsely. "Haggar's gonna catch up."

"I'll come, too."

He turns, finally stepping back from Shiro; it's his mother, flanked by the other Alteans. She hands him a tissue.

"No," Keith says, though he takes the tissue. "This is personal."

She raises an eyebrow. "And I'm your mother."

"And you weren't there." He pointedly puts the crumpled tissue back in her still-outstretched hand and she doesn't even flinch. "So stay here and help them while I'm gone."

Someone makes a surprised noise behind him—Lance, maybe—but he's not interested in arguing this point right now. His friends come first, and right now there's still near a couple dozen of them unaware of what's coming. He can't afford anything that might slow him down; he shouldn't have even come here.

" _Keith_ ," she says, and Allura and Coran both give him a disapproving look, but he turns away anyway, stretches up to kiss Shiro's cheek, and then steps back into nothing before anyone can stop him.

* * *

_It's not that Keith is tired of technology or anything, but it's kind of a relief to be on real, solid ground again, surrounded by green growing things and the sounds of wind and animals. And it's dusk—even better, to have something other than the constant artificial light of the pirate ship Voltron._

_He hadn't managed to avoid Shiro's feelings—he's beginning to think it's something inevitable. Just like how Shiro's always there, along with Lance and Pidge and Hunk. Often Allura and Matt, sometimes Coran—usually Zarkon. The same cast in so many different plays._

_There's a shuffling noise behind him, and he turns to see who's here to greet him this time around._

_What he finds is no one he recognizes—not even a person, just a large, rodent-like creature with black, matted fur. It's drooling, and it hisses when it sees him looking._

_Shit._

_And he left his sword_ and _pistol behind when he left._

_He backs away slowly, casting glances around for anything he can use as a weapon—a rock or a large stick would do. There's nothing within easy reach, and this thing could pounce at any moment. He has his knife but he doesn't fancy his chances against that thing's teeth._

_Probably better to run._

_He turns tail and sprints for it, and the thing hisses and gives chase. The forest isn't too dark or too dense—it's only a minute or so before he sees the glimmer of a light that might be a fire in the distance and changes course towards it. The thing is hot on his heels but it hasn't caught him yet—if he can just make it to help—_

_There's a thump and a screech behind him and he nearly trips. He glances over his shoulder to find... Pidge, on a literal lion._

_Now he really does trip, sprawling in the dirt and moss as he scrambles to turn around to face her. He spits out a leaf and somehow makes it back up to his feet in a second flat, still shaking with adrenaline._

_"You're lucky you didn't attract more thrata, crashing about like you were," she says._

_He gapes. She squints._

_"What..._ are _you?" she asks. He takes in her oddly-colored eyes—the black where white should be, the shine in her pupils like a cat's—her pointed ears, the ornate saddle strapped to the tawny beast beneath her, and wonders if he ought to ask the same._

_"I'm... foreign," he says finally, and she snorts._

_"You're more than that, I think," she says. "Follow me. Shiro will know what to do with you."_

_Again, then. He follows._

* * *

Keith finds himself in the outskirts of Olkarion, but it's trivial to hop further into the city, to the ornate stone-and-vine palace where at least _one_ of his friends will be. He sets off at a run across the familiar cobblestones of the courtyard; out of the corner of his eye he sees a guard start towards him, but another catches their arm. He's still known here, then.

He ought to be; this was where he defeated Zarkon himself. If only it could be so easy in every universe.

Up the stairs and down the hall, past the library and into the war room, he finds Shiro right where he expected him to be. He looks up when Keith enters, straightens from his work with raised eyebrows. His black and silver eyes flick down to Keith's armor.

"You've come here for a reason," Shiro says carefully.

Last time Keith was here, he'd come to apologize. And now he has again, but for a very different reason.

"This is gonna sound weird, but you have to get out of here, now," Keith says, panting. "You and the rest of the squad. The Honerva of another universe has the same ability as me."

Shiro's eyes widen. "She's followed you here?"

"I don't think she's here _yet,_ she's been following my trail but I got ahead of her—but she's coming. Soon."

He takes a deep breath. "And you're certain of this?"

"I've seen you dead enough times today," Keith says tightly. "I'm certain."

Shiro nods grimly and comes around the table. At least here they'll understand the danger, though whether they'll survive it is...

"I have to go on," Keith says. "You'll tell them, right?"

"Of course." Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder, like he always does, every one of him. "Stay safe, Keith."

"You too," Keith says. He waits until Shiro is out the door before he moves on.

He only hopes he hasn't wasted too much time—that they'll be able to escape. And if not that, at least, they'll be prepared for the fight.

* * *

_Not for the first time, Keith wishes he didn't have to leave the last world behind._

_It had been more than a year, this time—maybe because Shiro was gone for the first half of it. But he'd gotten so used to it, even with the knowledge that he could leave it in an instant. He'd settled in. He'd gotten the hang of being friends with Lance, had gained Hunk's trust, had learned all of Pidge's little quirks—and her brother's, too. He'd learned the ins and outs of that world, even as one of the few unmodified humans in the Metroplex. Like Atlantis, it was a place he would've liked to stay._

_And then Shiro kissed him._

_And that's why he's here now, in some kind of ramshackle mess hall, surrounded by the usual crew—all shouting because he appeared out of thin air in the middle of dinner. He can't bring himself to look at Shiro—he wonders what it'll be this time. What big conflict they'll have to settle before Shiro acts on his feelings, and if he can avoid that this time._

_Though, honestly, this place looks like a dump, and also Pidge now has a knife to his throat and Lance a gun to his temple._

_"You can't expect to stow away on a pirate ship and not face the consequences," Shiro warns him. Oh, great._

_"I can explain?" Keith offers, which is when he notices that Lance has a glowing eye again—that Shiro's arm is cybernetic, not the gilded-but-barely-mechanical piece he got back in Atlantis. And the floor beneath their feet isn't rocking like a ship would._

_The window on the far wall shows stars, not waves._

_"Then explain," Lance hisses, knocking his pistol into Keith's temple, and Keith swallows and begins to talk._

* * *

He lands in the mess, just like he had the first time he came here. It's only Hunk who's here right now, though, busy wiping off the scarred table with an old rag until he notices Keith and starts.

"Man, don't scare me like that, I’m armed," he says. "What's up? You're not here to apologize again, are you? 'Cause we're good now, I think."

"...I pissed someone off," says Keith.

"Gotcha." Hunk cracks his knuckles. "Who've we gotta kill?"

Keith shakes his head. "This is someone to run from."

"Definitely my preferred option." Hunk's shoulders relax. "So, what happened?"

Keith glances around. "Is everyone around? We don't have a lot of time, so if I can explain to everyone at once..."

"Yeah, everyone's here." Hunk reaches over and rings the dinner bell. Lance is the first to show.

"Hunk, we just ate—oh shit, it's Keith." Lance plops down onto the bench, chin in hand. "Nice armor. Where'd you get it?"

"No one you can steal from," Keith says, and Lance pouts.

Pidge shows up soon after with Shiro on her heels, who hesitates in the doorway but nevertheless comes in to join them. They all look expectantly at Keith.

He takes a deep breath. "I made an enemy—"

"Shocking," Lance interrupts, and Hunk shushes him.

"...Who can also travel between universes, and is now killing all of you in every place I've been," Keith finishes with a pointed look at Lance. "And no, you can't fight her, she's like—you remember those technomancers on that trade station that kicked our asses? She's like that, but she's been doing it for ten thousand years."

"Shit," says Hunk.

"How the hell did you piss someone off that badly?" Pidge asks.

"It was a group effort," says Keith. "And a long story. But when she shows up, it'll be on this ship, so—if you scatter, maybe she won't find you."

"We know how to lay low, Keith," Shiro says, with a faint smile.

"Yeah, I guess you do." They're pirates, after all. "But you don't have much time. Maybe an hour, if you're lucky. I'm not that far ahead of her."

"We've managed with less." Shiro stands. "Do you know how long she'll search?"

"Probably not long. Less than a day. She's really after me, not you, and there're still a few more universes to go."

"Dude. Don't die out there," says Lance.

"I'll do my best." Whatever her trap is, he hasn't sprung it yet; he can only hope he'll be able to escape it when he does. "But I really need to go."

"Then go." Shiro claps him on the shoulder again. "We'll be fine."

"I'm sorry," Keith adds quickly. "For—" he waves a hand— "this."

"You can make it up to me by getting me a set of that armor," Lance offers with a grin.

Keith heart clenches. So many versions of his friends are too used to danger. "God help me, if you survive, I will."

" _Lance_ ," Shiro chides. "Enough. Go, Keith."

Keith sighs, and goes.

* * *

_Keith steps into a new world, and with that step comes two realizations. One, this is a power he can control; he wanted to leave, so he did._

_Two, it's been a year—more or less—since he left the Garrison. He can't say he misses it._

_This world is nothing like the others—it's like he's been launched into the far future. It has a similar quality to Atlantis, in that everything follows a theme, at least—but where that theme had been seashells, the ocean, everyday goods made from driftwood and polished coral, here it seems to be neon lights and leather bodysuits. The city towers darkly; vehicles zoom through the air hundreds of feet above the streets. So even the hovertech is more advanced than back home._

_A small hoverbike descends towards him, then, black and chrome and neon blue, and he watches it warily; the other pedestrians here simply move out of the way as it lands, barely sparing it a glance. Keith is well aware he's still dressed in the peasant rags of the previous world, but there's nothing to be done about it now. The rebellion may have been a success but he wasn't going to linger there, not after Shiro's words._

_"You're not from around here," the hoverbike's rider says, and he pulls off his helmet without bothering to dismount. It's Lance this time, not Shiro—Lance the rebellion fence last world, Lance the member of Allura's underwater court the world before. Lance the hoverbike rider, here, and who knows what else._

_The others must be here too, then._

_"I'm not," Keith confirms._

_"Yeah, see, Allura predicted this would happen," Lance says, running a hand through his hair—the sides of his head are shaved, and one of his eyes glows the same blue as his bike. Definitely thematic. "I mean, usually her predictions happen within months, not years, but she's never wrong. Come on, let's get you off the street."_

_Well, that's Allura confirmed, at least. Keith catches the helmet Lance tosses him and looks down at its sleek black casing, finds his ragged self reflected in it._

_"How could this Allura possibly know I'd come?" he asks—maybe he's not the only one with this power._

_"I'm programmed to," a voice says from within the helmet, and he almost drops it. Lance laughs._

_"She's an AI, she's just smart like that," he says. "And anyway, she didn't predict you_ specifically. _Just that someone would come."_

_"Not just anyone," she corrects. "A traveler of many worlds."_

_"Well," Keith says, finally putting on the helmet, "I_ am _that."_

* * *

Even after all this time, there's something about the Metroplex that feels... maybe not quite like home, but like something nostalgic. Familiar. He'd spent long enough here, after all, longer than even the time he's spent in the universe he's chosen, yet.

The old hideout is still vacant, though. Which is probably good for his friends here, since it'll take longer for Haggar to find them, but it's a problem for him, too. The fastest way to contact everyone would be through Allura, after all, but she's not a person here and he's never tried to home in on something that isn't physical. People he can do, places, probably things—but this universe's Allura is just lines of code.

He jumps to Pidge instead, figuring she's the one least likely to be out and about. She is, though—he lands in the middle of a supermarket, one of the bright "old-style" ones she used to pretend to hate. Her hovercart nearly knocks him over until she grabs it.

"Man," she says resentfully, eyeing him. "This better be important, I'm starving."

"It's important," Keith says, stepping out of the way of someone else in the aisle. Teleporting isn't a thing here, but invisibility is, if uncommon; no one gives him a second glance, even in his armor.

"For everyone, or just me?"

"Everyone."

Pidge taps her wristband. "Allura?"

"I'm listening," Allura responds. Good—even if he has to explain in the middle of a grocery store.

"The Haggar in another world has the same ability as me," Keith says. "And she's following me back through all the universes I've been to—"

"Code black." Pidge has already gone pale.

"Code black," Allura repeats. "I'd hoped I'd be wrong about that one."

"...What?" Keith glances down at the wristband, back to Pidge.

"She's after us, isn't she?" Pidge says. "Allura predicted this might happen one day."

"Yes," Keith says with dawning realization. "Then you've already planned for this?"

Pidge makes a face. "It's a drag, but yeah. We've made plans."

Then here, they may survive. Keith relaxes, but only a little—they're still in danger, after all.

"I've informed the others," Allura adds. "They are already on their way to safety. You should go too, Pidge."

"Yeah, on it." Pidge turns to go.

"One last thing," Allura says, and Pidge pauses. "Keith, do not wallow in guilt over this—it was a possibility from the moment you arrived that something like this would happen."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Keith says.

"There is nothing else you could have done, save never traveling at all, and I'm sure many worlds would be the worse for it. And there are many ways to end this—before anyone else is hurt, even—but that does not mean they are right."

Keith stares at the wristband. "How could saving my friends _not_ be the right thing to do?"

"The 'greater good' may be trite, as a concept," Allura says. "But that does not mean it's never true." She sounds sad—as sad as an AI can sound, at least.

And with that, Pidge throws him a little salute and heads down the aisle. Keith watches them go uncomfortably.

This was his compromise, after all. His best attempt at foiling Haggar without falling into her trap. His appeal to the "greater good." But who is he to judge that—who is he to decide that all that's left for his friends is to buy time with their deaths?

And it's him Haggar is chasing, after all. That means he's been putting himself before his friends—putting his own safety above their lives. He should have gone after Haggar immediately, fought her like she wanted—she'd never go to these worlds if he had.

He should go after her now, before she gets any farther. She's probably made it to Olkarion (the city, not the planet)—the cruise ship must be lost by now. Shit, what if she sunk the whole thing? His friends haven't been the only ones to die, so far—so many innocents, so many people Keith has never even met have been caught up in his mess—

"Keith!" His mother's voice snaps him out of his thoughts. "Good, I caught up."

"I told you not to come," Keith says distantly.

"And I came anyway because I'm your mother." He hears her come closer but keeps his gaze fixed on the fake linoleum beneath his feet. "And I want to be here for you now, even if I wasn't before. And I—I just saw all of my friends die, too, and I don't want anyone else to follow."

He cringes at that—he'd almost forgotten. Mavear hung up on the pillar, all the bodies and the frightened survivors, that was his fault, too.

"Sorry," he says quietly.

"No," she says. "It's my fault."

His head snaps up at that. Now she's the one looking at the floor; behind her, down the aisle, other customers are eyeing her and muttering. It's probably time to go.

"I don't see how it could be," he says finally. "You have to go." If she's somehow convinced herself all this is because of her, that's not his problem.

"You know perfectly well your friends don't need my help, Keith," she says.

"If you wanna deal with grocery store security, be my guest."

She opens her mouth to speak further, finally meeting his eyes, but, frankly, he's not interested right now. He steps away into darkness.

* * *

_It hadn't occurred to Keith that this sudden shift in surroundings was something that could happen again, let alone something he had done himself. But, like the first time, he had only to wish he was elsewhere—away from Atlantis, its politics, its architectural marvels, its Land-Prince with the soft gaze he only turned on Keith, lately…_

_He'd liked it there. But the love of a man he'd seen die was something he couldn't accept. Just... just in case. They may have defeated the Demon of the Deep but its minions still roam the waters and land alike, and there are so many other dangers, besides. So many pointless tiny things that can kill when you don't see it coming._

_It's raining, here, but that's fine; he’s used to being soaked through by now. This place doesn't look so much different from the inland villages of Atlantis, either, the low thatched huts and dirt roads. There's a sort of glamour missing, though. Mud and wood and stone and no magic at all. If Atlantis was a utopia—at least on the surface—then this place is just... normal._

_At least, he thinks so, until he spots a large purple figure with a whip walking through the field at the base of this hill. The figures working in the field—they're smaller. Human._

_He probably shouldn't be seen, then._

_It's pretty trivial to sneak through the village—seems like the purple things are more focused on not letting any of their workers (slaves?) out of their sight than their surroundings, and anyway, the rain is heavy enough to mask his movements. He has one close call, in the center of town, if it can be called a town; he ducks into the back of a smithy to avoid being seen. The purple thing passes without seeing, and Keith breathes again—he's gotten very good at holding his breath._

_"Are you a runaway?" a quiet voice asks, startling him. He spins and freezes._

_So he's doing this all over again, then._

_"I-I am now," he manages to say, and even though he’s steadily turning the dirt floor to mud, Shiro smiles._

* * *

It's momentum, or something, that takes him back to the dirty little village, the second world he'd ever found. He hadn't really meant to come here, but he hadn't been thinking particularly hard about where he wanted to go—just away.

He should go straight to Haggar and end this, one way or another. He can't take her out on his own, and she'll probably be expecting him, anyway, but at least with him gone she'll have no reason to continue along the trail he's left.

He... doesn't want to die. But if it saves his friends, it'll be worth it, right?

"Keith?"

He starts and turns—it's Lance. He raises an eyebrow when Keith just stares at him.

"Did your lover leave you?"

Keith blinks. "What?"

"You look upset." Lance rocks back on his heels. He looks older than Keith remembers, more mature—he hadn't been around when Keith came here for closure months ago, so he hadn’t noticed. And instead of chattering on, the way some versions of him do, he stops and waits for Keith's response, face calm and open.

Just another reminder that his friends have gone on living without him, lives that will be cut short because of him.

"No one left me," Keith says belatedly. "Not like that, anyway."

Lance raises his eyebrows. "Then, how so?"

"They've been dying," Keith says flatly. "Because of me."

Lance tilts his head. "Who has?"

"You guys. It's..." Keith sighs. If he's explaining anyway, he might as well tell the whole story. "When I left here, I went to another universe. You and Shiro and Pidge and Hunk were there, too. And I went to another, and you were all there again, and so on—every time I've been to a new world, I've found all of you."

"Oh." Lance stops fidgeting and straightens. "Every time?"

"Yeah. But the thing is—I left a trail. And the Haggar in another world figured out how to follow it back."

"Oh," Lance says again, slowly. "I see." He starts pacing back and forth on the dirt road—everyone else must be out in the fields, because the village is quiet. "If you're worried you're leading her here, why did you come back?"

"I've already been here. She's following my trail either way, I'm just ahead of her." Keith huffs. "She's going to come here _anyway_ and kill all of you, because she saw me jumping around and figured out how to do it too—and she's after me, all of this is a trap for _me,_ but you guys are the bait and if I don't spring the trap I don't know how else I can save you."

"Whoa, Keith." Lance grabs him by the shoulders. "Hold on. You can't just sacrifice yourself for us."

Keith gives him a look.

"I know I'm being a hypocrite, but that's sort of the point," Lance adds. "Do you know how devastated Shiro was when you left? Pidge, too."

"That's because Shiro fell in love with me," Keith says cautiously. "He always does."

"Always? Yeah, probably because you're head over heels for him. That's not the point. The point is, we wouldn't want you to die for us—we, here, and probably in all those other worlds, too." He gives Keith a shake. "Everyone was upset when you left, and you were _alive._ Imagine how we'd feel if you were on your way to die?"

"How do you think _I_ feel, leaving you to die?" Keith retorts.

" _Exactly the same,_ that's my _point_." Lance gives him another shake. "We don't want you to die for us any more than you want _us_ to die for _you_."

Keith brushes him off. "I'm trying to _save_ you," he protests, and Lance rolls his eyes so hard he almost tips backwards.

"What do you think _I'm_ doing right now?" he asks pointedly.

Trying to save Keith. The answer comes immediately but doesn't register for a moment, and when it does Keith doesn't have a response. And, he gets it, that his friends might want to protect him—it was a long time coming but he's learned that lesson. That doesn't change the fact that he's weighing their deaths against his.

But he thinks about Shiro and—well, this was already a compromise. A compromise so that he wasn’t _abandoning them completely._ And the longer Haggar is distracted, the more time his team has to take out Zarkon for good. Their whole universe is at stake.

Allura's greater good, maybe. Maybe it's his own. Maybe that isn't as selfish as he feels it is.

He sighs. "Okay," he says finally. "Thanks, Lance."

Lance squints at him. "I hope that means it worked."

"It worked," Keith says dully. He still doesn't like it, but he only has one universe left, and then it's back to fight Zarkon. He might as well get it over with.

"Well, good," says Lance. "So this woman who's been watching us for the past while, she isn't Haggar, is she?"

Keith spins, heart in throat, but it's only his mother; she gives him a wry little wave, standing down the road just barely within earshot. He really doesn't want to know how much she heard.

"No, she isn't," he says. He glances back at Lance. "Can you warn everyone else? I have to go."

"Fine," Lance says with a raised eyebrow. "Take care, Keith."

"You too."

He saunters off, leaving Keith alone with his mother. He's tempted to just move on again, but she'll only follow; he might as well hear her out while they don't have an audience.

"I hope that wasn't what I thought it was," she says as she approaches.

"Why do you think this is your fault?" he asks in turn. She gives him a look.

"Keith."

"Erolia."

"You were planning to confront her, weren't you?"

"My friends are dying," he points out, "and it's because I led her right to them. So—why do you think it's _your_ fault?"

"You aren't answering my question."

"You aren't answering _mine_."

She hisses out a sigh and rubs her forehead. "None of this would've happened if I hadn't left you behind. If I'd stayed."

Keith crosses his arms. "Sure. Wouldn't've happened if I hadn't been born at all. Wouldn't've happened if _you_ hadn't been born. We can go as far back as you want—that doesn't make it _your_ fault."

Something passes across her face, a flicker of a grimace that fades into careful blankness. Her eyes fix on the landscape behind him.

"You're right. I shouldn't have been born at all," she says, which throws him right for a loop. He gapes.

"What?"

She sighs again. "I haven't been completely truthful with you regarding my—our—heritage."

He doesn't know what to make of that, so he waits for her to continue. She fidgets.

"I am not from Altea," she says finally. "Not the Altea you've seen, in the universe where I bore you—not any Altea I've seen, either. I was born after its destruction."

Keith swallows. "You're implying you're from..."

"The universe you've chosen as your home. Yes."

He takes a deep breath and lets it out. It's unexpected, sure, but it's a coincidence—nothing more.

“So we switched universes,” he says.

“Effectively.”

"How is this relevant?" he asks.

"I don't know," she begins slowly, "why you left, or why you came to so many universes afterwards. But I left mine because of my parents." She folds her hands behind her back and still doesn't meet his eye. "Altea was destroyed shortly after I was born. My mother forgot about me, until—until the attack this morning, but my father remembered from the start. At first, I thought I could make him proud. I thought, if I became a paladin, I could bring him Voltron."

A chill runs down Keith's spine.

"But, the longer I stayed—the more I saw of a peaceful world, a world they’d destroyed, the more I realized he and my mother weren't the sort of people I should be making proud. I left them behind. And I left you behind because that wasn't what I wanted to be to you—I wanted you to be free of that legacy."

She does look him in the eye, now, and he wishes he'd never asked—he wishes he'd never met her in the first place. He can see the shape of what she's implying, and he doesn't like it at all.

This is something he cannot unknow.

"My parents," she says at last. "They're—"

"No," he interrupts breathlessly. "No, don't say it. I don't want to hear it."

She looks at him sadly. "You asked," she says, and he shakes his head, backs away. As long as he doesn't hear it, there's still a chance it isn't true.

She doesn't say more, only watches him quietly, but he can see it in her face. It haunts him even when he looks away.

"I'm going," he whispers, and he does, running away into the darkness.

He stumbles out into a forest—not the beaches of Atlantis as he'd half expected, but he's not paying much mind to where he's going right now. This must be someplace new, then.

Except that there's something familiar about this forest; it takes him a minute to place it, probably because here now it's fall edging into winter when last time it'd been firmly spring. But beneath the fallen leaves, the yellow and brown that covers the moss, is a clearing he knows.

His breath catches, and he makes a jump, downstream a mile to where he knows there used to be a camp.

And the tents, the fires, the hammocks—they're still there, when he arrives. Torn and trampled, ashes cold, the scent of rot already building—even here, where he'd spent only a day. Even here, the forest he'd found before he'd taken Zarkon's bayard, where he hadn't even met the team, she came, and she killed them.

They could never have known why.

He drops to his knees in the churned-up mud and watches a fly crawl across Pidge's waxy pale face. His throat tightens but he can't cry; he doesn't have it in him anymore.

He can't be descended from someone who could do this.

Slowly, he gets back to his feet. He needs to get going, to keep moving. There's still one more stop he has to make, after all.

* * *

_This isn't the Garrison._

_It's a beach, in fact, Keith realizes when he looks around, dropping his empty arms—wherever he is, his box of stuff hadn't come with him. The waves lap gently against the shore just a few feet away; when he shifts, his shoes sink into the soft sand. The water stretches further than he can wrap his head around, all the way to the horizon with no other land in sight—he’s never seen the ocean before, but this must be it. Far ahead along the shore is a gleaming white city, arched and spired and halfway in the water, and there's as much splashing in the watery half as there's activity on the land. Structures rise out of the water—aqueducts, maybe, though he can't tell for sure from this far away._

_This definitely isn't the Garrison, nor is it Arizona. Keith is pretty sure this isn't even Earth._

_A noise behind him makes him turn; there's a man dismounting from a white horse, clad in rich purple, like something out of a fairy tale. There's more mounted men behind him, wearing colorful armor that glints in the sun, just shy of blinding—bodyguards, Keith thinks wildly. Because the man walking towards him now looks like a prince, gold circlet and all—it’s like he's walked out of a storybook. Or, rather, that Keith has stumbled into one._

_The man also looks like Takashi Shirogane, late pilot of the Kerberos mission—exactly like, but for the scar across his nose, the white of his bangs._

_"Hello there!" Shiro's doppelganger calls out as he nears, and he sounds the same, too. "What are you doing so far out from the city?"_

I'm from another world, _Keith wants to say._ I came here by accident but I already don't want to go back. You look like someone I called my hero.

_"I don't know," he says truthfully. "I don't know how I got here."_

_Not-Shiro—maybe he_ is _Shiro—raises an eyebrow. "Are you a citizen of Atlantis?"_

_Atlantis, huh?_

_Keith looks over his shoulder, back down the shore at the gleaming, bustling city. Like something out of a daydream._

_"I don't think so," he says, mentally tossing aside his missing box and his old life with it, "but maybe I could be."_

* * *

Keith pops right in to Shiro's office in the palace. No point in wasting time getting through the rest of Atlantis, beautiful as it is—if Shiro isn't there, someone else will be, and Keith can pass his message on.

But Shiro _is_ here, and a man Keith doesn't even recognize standing close at his shoulder. The man goes for his sword but Shiro meets Keith's eyes and holds out a hand to stop him, half-standing from behind his ornate wooden desk.

"Keith," he says. "What are you doing here? Are you all right?"

"I'm here to warn you," Keith says. "Someone—I told you I can travel to different universes, right?" It's been a while, and even the last time he came back everything was a bit of a blur. "Someone else who can do that is coming to kill you, and the Holts. And Allura and Lance and Hunk."

The stranger narrows his eyes. "How exactly do you know this?"

"She's been to every other place I've been. It's only a matter of time before she comes here too." Keith eyes the man's uniform, the circlet he wears and seashells or pearls he doesn't; he's not from Atlantis. Maybe another nation's prince. It's been years since he knew the politics of this world, and he's not too concerned about catching up right now.

"I see," Shiro says slowly. "Thank you for the warning. I will pass it on."

The other man eyes him. "You believe him?"

"Yes." Shiro sits back down heavily. "I do."

"Thanks, Shiro," says Keith, with one last look at the other prince. It's a little surreal seeing someone else at Shiro's side in this airy familiar place, and a stranger to boot, but Keith left, after all. Sooner or later, someone else was bound to take his place.

He leaves them behind, and strides into darkness once more.

* * *

When Keith returns to the Castle he feels, more than anything else, empty. He's put his friends in the line of fire, and they never had a choice in the matter.

But an entire universe is at stake.

He trudges up to the bridge to rejoin the others, but pauses at the door. There are voices coming from inside, but only Allura's and Coran's, and...

"How could she be Altean?" Allura is saying. "How could any Altean have chosen— _that?_ "

"It's not as simple as that," Coran says gently. "It's not as though she suddenly switched sides."

"But to actively work for Zarkon?"

They're talking about Haggar, Keith realizes. He's already known she had to be Altean, from his experiences in past universes if nothing else, but it never occurred to him that Allura and Coran might not know. Or what it would mean for them.

Did his mother tell them? And if so... what else did she admit?

He enters the bridge slowly, but the two notice immediately—the bridge is empty otherwise. The rest of the team must be preparing for battle already.

"Hi," he says hoarsely, approaching. "Uh. Sorry I never thought to... tell you."

"Tell us what?" Allura says, voice tight, though she holds herself as steady as ever.

"That Haggar's Altean," he says, and she and Coran both sigh.

"You already know," Coran says. "I guess your mother would have told you as well."

"She didn't have to." Keith sits heavily in the nearest chair—Hunk's. "Everywhere there's been Galra, Haggar wasn't one of them. And where there's been Alteans, she was. Where she existed at all, anyway."

"Oh," Allura says, sitting on the central platform.

"It was more obvious in other places," Keith offers. "I just... assumed."

There's a long pause.

"Keith," Allura starts. "I think you can imagine what it means for us to... find other Alteans. Whichever side they are on."

Meaning she’s not just thinking of Haggar. "Mom's probably not gonna stay here, you know," Keith says. "Actually, maybe she will. But I think she's gonna want to help back on the other Altea, and there's... other stuff keeping her away." She probably didn't tell them, after all. He wouldn't, if he were her.

"Keith, she means you," Coran says. Keith blinks.

"Oh." It’s not like he forgot, of course—it would be impossible to, with what he’s learned today. But he forgot what it would mean to them, and forgot that’s why he hasn’t _talked_ about it.

He realizes now he was just running away again. Not physically like he used to, but running all the same.

He decided to stop running a while ago. He ought to stick to that.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Allura prods gently.

"It does," he admits finally, and Allura and Coran both seem to settle because of it.

"I can't imagine how it must feel to find you are... not what you thought," Allura says, "but I would be glad to think of you as one of us."

"I mean, the universe-hopping thing was a big hint," Keith says slowly, "so I wasn't _that_ surprised. It doesn't change much, anyway. I'm still me."

They both smile. "You most certainly are!" Coran exclaims, and Keith can't help but smile back.

He needs to tell them, though. Before they really do accept him as one of them. He's never had to admit to something like this before, and certainly not in a place he wasn't willing to leave behind, but he’s not going to run anymore.

He'll have to tell Shiro, too, and that will be hard, but Shiro won't leave him because of it. He's sure of that. But as personal as it is for Shiro, it's far more so for the two beside him now.

He takes a deep breath. "How much did my mom tell you?"

Allura and Coran exchange a look. "Only that Haggar is Altean," says the former. "Why?"

"I think—I didn't let her finish telling me, so maybe I'm wrong, but..." Keith looks down at her lap. "Haggar's her mother."

There's a long pause.

"She said she was descended from the Haggar in her universe..." Allura's voice trails off.

"She lied."

"...This Haggar?"

"Yeah." Keith sighs. "She left because she realized her parents were... evil." No point in telling the whole story. "I don't know if Haggar even knows we're..."

He can't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Is this why you wouldn't talk to us about it?" Coran asks quietly, coming to stand by Keith's seat. Keith dares a glance up and finds no anger, only sympathy.

"I didn't know until today," he says. "I just didn’t want to deal with it, before."

Allura draws in a shaky breath, and lets it out slowly. "It's fine," she says. "I understand. And after all, you're still you."

"Okay," Keith says, because he doesn't know what else to say. "Thanks."

There's another long pause.

"Where is everyone?" Keith asks finally.

"Preparing for battle," Coran answers immediately. So maybe Keith isn't the only one wanting to run from the truth right now. "Incidentally, Matt figured out how the Galra were predicting our every move!"

Shit—Keith wasn't gone that long and still so much happened here without him. "How!?"

"When the Galra captured Shiro, he lost his helmet," Allura says. "They found it and were listening in on our communications."

Keith stares. Something so _simple_ —and he _knew_ Shiro had lost his helmet, but it never occurred to him that the Galra might find and use it. He groans and drops his head into his hands.

"What's done is done," Corans says, patting his shoulder. "We've blocked them off now! They can't listen to us anymore."

 _Still._ He should have thought of that. Too wrapped up in all the things he'd learned in other worlds, all the telepathy and scrying and spies, to see something so obvious.

He takes a deep breath. Coran's right; what's done is done.

"What do you need me to do?" he asks, looking up.

"For now? Keep an eye out for Haggar, along with your mother," Allura says. "I don't suppose you know how long she'll be away?"

"Who, my mother or Haggar?" Keith asks tiredly. And then, "Wait, where _is_ she?"

"Who, your mother or Haggar?" Allura echoes, raising an eyebrow.

"My mother. She caught up with me—I wasn't in the last place long, and she would've come back here, there's nowhere else to go back to." Keith looks around, just in case, but there's no sign of her. "Unless she went off to face Haggar—oh God. I have to go."

"She wouldn't," Coran says quickly. "She said she wouldn't!"

"Please be careful, Keith," Allura adds, coming over to place a hand on his arm. "Haggar still may have set a trap for you."

"And I didn't spring it, so maybe my mom did." Keith stands, dislodging both their hands, and thinks back hard—really, there was no sign of a trap anywhere he'd been, but he was so focused on warning everyone that he didn't notice. He can't imagine where it must be—he'll have to find his mother's trail through the multiverse, and follow it to her. "I'll be careful, I promise."

Both Alteans look a little dubious at that, but Allura nods.

"Go, then, and quickly," she says. "There are few of us left as it is."

"That includes you," Coran adds, but this time Keith just smiles.

"We'll both come home safe," he says, and steps into nothing.

* * *

_Pilot error._

_Those two words have been haunting Keith for weeks now. He hadn't known Shiro well—supposedly he was the one who argued Keith into the Garrison in the first place, despite his disciplinary record, but the one time they'd met, late at night in the simulator, Shiro hadn't seemed to recognize him. At least, he hadn't mentioned it—just eyed him sternly for a moment before breaking into a smile and asking if Keith wanted any tips._

_"It'll be our little secret," he'd said, when Keith had asked why he wasn't turning him in for breaking curfew. "I won't tell if you don't."_

_So that was what Keith knew of him—he was nice, and he was the best pilot the Garrison had._

_And that's why "pilot error" haunts him—Shiro could never had made a mistake that big, a mistake that would take out the rest of his crew with him. He was too good and too kind. It had to be something mechanical, something wrong in the ship that Shiro couldn't have accounted for, but the Garrison needed a scapegoat and he's the one they picked._

_So the orders and regulations and restrictions that chafed before are cutting now, and the people Keith had grudgingly respected now look like liars at best—monsters at worst. Drills that were painful are now excruciating._

_Shiro had had to do all of this too, had to suffer through every pointless exercise to get to the top, and look where that got him—shamed in death by the people who praised him in life._

_So Keith checked out. Stopped listening. And the next teacher to tell him to pay attention lest he end up like Shiro, he punched in the face._

_That's why he's in Iverson's office now, along with a few officers arrayed behind him in an intimidating line. That's why everything he owns, the scant handful of belongings he's gathered since he came here, is sitting in a box on the desk in front of him._

_"It's up to you," Iverson says. "If you want to stay, you'll have to convince me why you should."_

_They want him to grovel, to beg. He's too old for foster care; they know he's got no home to go to but an empty shack in the desert, if it's even still standing. They know he's got no other options._

_He's not going to beg._

_"Shiro's not here to do it for you," Iverson growls, so Keith looks at him—looks hard into his remaining eye._

_"You wanna tell me again why that is?" he challenges._

_It's the wrong thing to say and he knows it. Iverson sighs._

_"It was only thanks to Shiro that we accepted you into this institution," he says, confirming what Keith had only heard through rumor before. "Is this how you want to thank him? Is this what you want his legacy to be?"_

Pilot error, _says the little voice in Keith's head. They've already decided his legacy, after all._

_"Are you really going to waste your chance to make up for his mistakes?"_

_Keith wants to be a pilot. He wants it desperately._

_But not here, not like this, at the mercy of men who ask questions like that._

_"I don't think Shiro cares what I do or what his legacy is," Keith says. "He's dead." And he picks up his box and walks out the door. He doesn't know where he's going, and he doesn't care, as long as it isn't here._

* * *

The last place Keith expected his mother to be is the Garrison, back where it all started—the universe he was born in, on Earth. But that's where she is when he finds her, arguing with a couple of Garrison officials in a long, familiar hallway, beneath those cold fluorescent lights.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Iverson's among them, and the first to notice Keith standing there.

"Looking for her," Keith says simply. "Erolia, why'd you come _here?_ "

She looks at him like he's an idiot. "You wanted to warn your friends, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but they aren't here." It didn't even occur to him to come here; Shiro is dead in this universe, after all, and Keith never met any of the others. Besides, Haggar's already been to this universe—just a different planet, far, far away.

But Erolia raises an eyebrow, and nods behind him. Keith turns.

"Back from the dead, huh, hotshot?" Lance says.

Shit.

"Hi, Lance," Keith sighs. "You're in danger." They've got an audience right now and he's not sure how much he should say—or how much Lance will believe. He's wearing an officer's uniform, he _should_ take a possible threat seriously, but that doesn't mean he'll trust Keith.

"Oh, so you _do_ know my name." Sure enough, Lance crosses his arms and looks at him with disbelief. "And now you're threatening me?"

"Yes and no. Where's Hunk and Pidge? They're in danger, too." They might believe him, and Lance will probably go along with them if they do. He looks around the crowd, but doesn't see them.

"If you think you can just show up here and start ordering people around—" Iverson starts. But Keith ignores him to flicker off to find Pidge and Hunk.

At least, he _tries._ But he can't.

So instead he turns, slowly, and meets his mother's eyes. They're wide, her face pale—she knows, too.

They've finally sprung Haggar's trap.

"Outside," Erolia says, interrupting Iverson's rant, and she shakes off the officers holding her; they run down the hall, Iverson and Lance shouting after them. Keith leads the way and they burst out into a courtyard—far too empty for this time of day, except for the lone figure in the middle, waiting just for them, for him.

Here, at the end of many worlds, and at the beginning of them all.

"It's about time," Haggar says, and Keith reaches for his bayard. Erolia grabs his arm.

"We need to get her away from this place," she says lowly. "Before anyone else gets hurt."

"How, exactly?" he demands. Because sure, if they can do it, it's a better idea than fighting here—but drawing her out means leaving the Garrison undefended. And Haggar has no problem using innocents as bait.

She doesn't let them think about it long, either—she lifts her hands and energy crackles. Keith shoots a frantic glance at his mother, and then they dive apart as a bolt strikes between them. Haggar disappears only to reappear where it struck.

Of course whatever she's doing wouldn't affect _her._

This time Keith does draw his bayard, swinging at her hard and fast. Erolia shouts, and Haggar smiles—and vanishes again as Erolia dives for her. Keith barely diverts his swing in time to avoid hitting his mother, sending the tip of his bayard into the hard dirt at their feet instead.

"We _can't fight her,_ Keith," she pants, as Haggar reappears back in the middle of the courtyard again. "She's too powerful!"

They can't run and they can't fight—what _can_ they do?

"Do you know how she's stopping us from jumping?" he asks all in one breath. "Can _we_ stop _her?_ " Maybe then they'd have a chance.

Erolia pauses. "I... maybe."

They part again to dodge another blast, and then another. Keith tries to get around Haggar's back, but the moment he's out of her line of sight she vanishes.

"KEITH!" Erolia screams, and he spins around in time for a bolt of energy to hit him full in the chest.

The next thing he knows he's flat on the ground, heart stuttering in its beat. He tries to sit up, only to be met with blinding light. For a moment he thinks he's been hit again, or that he's about to fall unconscious—but he turns his head, and there's his mother at his side, and Haggar further beyond, and the lightning shooting from both their hands meets in the middle in an explosion of light.

"Keith," Erolia groans. "Get out of here."

"What?" He gets unsteadily to his feet.

"If you get out of her range, you can get home," she says through clenched teeth—her arms are shaking, but still she's holding firm. "Go and tell them everything. I'm sorry."

"Erolia— _Mom,_ no, I'm not just gonna—"

"Go!" The look she gives him is desperate. The light between her and Haggar is moving steadily closer.

She's going to sacrifice herself so he can escape. Another death on his hands. For the greater good, maybe, but he doesn't think he can take losing anyone else, and there may be many versions of his friends, many versions of Shiro, even, but he only has one mother.

So instead he stands next to her, shoulder to shoulder, and lifts his hands.

He doesn't know what to do—but he didn't when he left this place either, he only knew what he wanted, and he knows what he wants now. It's a different feeling, an energy that builds inside him and spills out, shooting towards Haggar like his mother's beside him. His joins theirs, and the light is too blinding to see through but—it's not getting any closer.

"Keith!" Erolia shouts again, angry now. "I told you we can't fight her! You have to go!"

"You're not leaving me again," he grunts, and pushes harder.

"Keith, listen to me. You're using too much energy." His mother looks over at him, and there's something in her eyes that makes him look away. "She's too powerful. She can hold us both off until we're spent. Even if you survive, you won't be able to escape."

"I'm not losing anybody else! There has to be a way!"

"There _isn't!_ There _isn't,_ Keith, she can't be stopped! Go, please." She leans her shoulder into his. "You're the only good thing that ever came of her, please, go."

He looks sideways at her—he's never known her to be a bad person, so why would she say—but she left him, but he's left so many more—and she's right that he's running out of energy alarmingly fast but what else can he do? There's no one he can call for backup, no one who could possibly stand against Haggar—except one.

"How long can you hold her?" he asks breathlessly.

"Long enough," Erolia says.

"Don't let her kill you," he says, easing away. "Please. I'll be back. Just hold on."

She looks dubious, but she nods. He bumps her shoulder with his and lets his power fade—he sees the way she stiffens as she takes the brunt of Haggar's attack again, but he takes off running anyway. Back through the Garrison and towards the hangars, and onto someone's hoverbike; he starts it with a flicker of power from his hands, keys be damned.

There's still a way he can save her, if he's just fast enough.

So he flies out of the Garrison, dodging yelling officers with ease. Out the gate and into the desert, where the crackle of lightning is lost to the roar of the bike. And all the while he pushes at the boundaries of this universe, feeling for his escape route.

There's nothing, and nothing, and nothing, and then all at once it _gives,_ and he hits the breaks and all but tumbles off the skidding bike and out of this world.

If there's a ground to hit in the place between universes, he hits it. He takes a stunned moment to lie there and then staggers back up to his feet. No time to gather himself; he feels for his way home in the dark, and finds—nothing.

Panic makes his chest tighten, but there's no air here, so he steps forward—any universe will do. But none come; he stays stuck in between. He steps back—but he can't go back, either.

He's trapped.

He starts running, more from instinct than anything else. He's not sure that there's really any movement to be had here, where there's no discernable space at all—he's not sure where Haggar's blockade is, if it's something he can escape from here, if it's even her doing. But this is his only shot.

He can hold his breath much longer than the average human, but even he will suffocate here, and it won't take long at all.

He presses into the nothing around him, feeling for an opening, just the slightest crack. His lungs burn. If there was anything to see, his vision would be blurring about now—he can feel the fog closing in on his mind, but if he just... keeps... moving...

His searching mind catches on something, finally, the slightest snag in the blockade, and he lurches towards it, catapulting himself finally out of the nothing and into blessed air. He does nothing but gasp, for a while—his oxygen-deprived brain struggles to get back up to speed. He opens his eyes and finds cobblestones beneath his cheek. His head throbs.

"Hello?" a voice cuts faintly through the buzzing in his ears. "Can you hear me?"

He takes another moment before he pushes himself up to his knees, and finds a familiar face.

"Are you all right?" Shiro asks—a new Shiro, in a new place—some kind of city, it seems, with streets lined with gas lights and horse-drawn carriages that swerve to avoid the two of them in the middle of the road. Shiro's in a top hat and tails.

Keith wheezes out a giggle—still woozy from lack of oxygen, and the sight is so _absurd_ right now—before his thoughts catch up to him. He escaped, but he's wasted so much time, and if Erolia can't hold Haggar back then she'll definitely follow him...

"I'm sorry!" Keith gasps, finally staggering to his feet—swaying, so that Shiro reaches out to steady him. "I've put you in danger again, I'm sorry—if you know Pidge—Katie Holt—and the others, Lance, Hunk, Allura, Coran—tell them they're in danger too. If she comes for you—I'm so sorry."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Shiro says, because of course there's no way he could. But there's no time.

"It's... I can't explain." Keith shakes his head, making it throb again. "I need to go."

"Now, hold, a moment. You're injured." Shiro looks at him with concern—reaches to brush his bangs away from the blood trickling down his temple and starts when their eyes meet. "You're the very image of—"

"Shiro?"

Keith spins; there's a carriage stopped behind him, and peeking out of it, a man. It takes a long minute for Keith to recognize him as himself.

The slicked-back hair and setting-appropriate clothing don't help, but more than that—this has never happened before.

He is such a long, long way from home.

"Take care of them," he stutters at his other self, even as the latter's eyes widen in shock. "You could lose them so easily. Just—just let them in."

His other self's brow furrows—so strange to see it on his own face like this—and he meets Shiro's eyes. Keith watches them both for a moment—watches the conversation that plays out silently across their faces.

He wonders if he's happy here.

"Stay safe," he whispers, for himself more than to them, and then he leaves again.

His path is clear now, as he stands in the place between worlds, so he goes straight for the dimension hopper—finds it sitting forgotten in the lounge, straps it on, and jumps to Allura. She's on the bridge with everyone else, and he dimly registers that they're smiling, laughing, that they stop when they see him. But he just heads straight for her, unstrapping the hopper and holding it out.

"Come with me," he says. "Quickly. It's Mom."

There's still half a smile frozen on her face, but it falls, and she takes the device. When he steps back, she follows, and in moments they're back in the Garrison courtyard.

It's completely empty. Scuff and burn marks everywhere from the fight, but not Haggar, and not his mother.

"Shit." He should've gone straight to one or the other, but he didn't feel that either of them had left this universe—they're both still here, somewhere, on this planet. Haggar might have followed him, but Erolia is...

"Keith," Allura says. "What happened?"

"This is where Haggar set her trap," Keith says, still peering around the courtyard like he could've just missed seeing them somehow. "Mom and I fought her, and she held her off so I could escape, and I thought—you've fought Haggar before, maybe you could help."

"I'll certainly do what I can," Allura says. "Those markings, are they because of the fight?"

"What?" He blinks. "All the burn marks? Yeah."

"No," Allura says, and she brushes her fingers against her own cheekbone. Keith stares.

"I don't know what you mean," he says.

"Never mind, we'll discuss it later," she says, and nods behind him. "Look."

Keith turns. It's Lance, this world's Lance, approaching them sheepishly.

"Uh, hey," he says. "So, Keith, your mom's in the infirmary? She kinda saved my life. She said you'd want that."

Then she's alive, thank God. Haggar must have chased after him instead—that's why he couldn't get out of the between place.

"I don't really know what's going on, but that woman you guys were fighting just basically flew out into the desert," Lance continues. "So, do you... want a ride?" He looks between them, and then blinks and straightens, eyes catching on Allura. "Whoa. Hello, beautiful."

Allura sighs. "He's always like this?"

"Yeah, pretty much," says Keith. "Let's go."

* * *

Keith taps Lance's shoulder almost the moment the hoverbike he abandoned comes into view. It's hard to tell at this distance but it looks like there's a figure beside it, and he's not keen on dragging Lance into a danger he can't fully understand.

"What!?" Lance shouts over the roar of the engine of his own bike.

"Don't get too close!" Keith shouts back.

Lance nods, and they slow a few hundred yards away, then stop. In the distance, Haggar starts towards them. Keith and Allura hop off the bike.

"Go back to the Garrison, Lance," Keith says. "I've seen you die enough times today."

"Well, that's not ominous at all," Lance says, "but if you want me to stay away from angry sparky lady, you got it. Try not to die, I guess. I'd feel weird about it now if you did."

"I'll do my best," Keith says, and nods to Allura. She nods back, and they turn and start off to meet Haggar.

"How are we doing this?" Allura asks lowly as they walk.

"I can do pretty much what she can do, but I'm not as strong," Keith says, eyes fixed on their target. "You went head to head with her before; I think the two of us can defeat her."

"I hope so," Allura says. "Is she preventing you from traveling now?"

He tests it. "Yeah."

"Can you stop her, too?"

"I can try." Erolia had thought it might be possible, after all. He focuses on it as they walk; he feels something, but he can't tell if it's working, only if it won't.

But Haggar jerks, and then speeds up, so maybe it is.

"Do you have a plan?" Allura asks urgently, speeding up too.

"Hit her with everything you've got," Keith says, "and don't let her hit you."

"Simple enough."

And Haggar starts to crackle with lightning, and Allura starts to glow, and Keith puts everything he has into the tips of his fingers and they meet in the middle.

Haggar's attack splits them apart and Allura rolls away and braces to strike. Keith brings his bayard in one hand, his knife in the other, and charges in. Under cover of Allura's attack, he strikes at Haggar's side, and finds his blades caught in her claws; her eyes flash, and he's blasted backwards, tumbling across the sand.

"Keith!" Allura shouts, but he rolls to his feet quickly.

"Keep going!" he shouts back. Even as he does Allura absorbs Haggar's next attack, and flings it back at her twofold. Keith charges in again, sending energy crackling down his blades, and swings.

This time Haggar doesn't block him, merely twirls away, putting him between her and Allura. He spins around and edges around her, looking for an opening while trying to give Allura one, but she only backs away and tries to zap him again. This he dodges, barely, but when he ducks in to attack again she hits.

He doesn't white out this time, and so he sees Allura's power shoot overhead the moment he hits the ground. He rolls away with a slight groan and gets back to his feet.

They're keeping her more pressed than he and his mother were, he notes as he ducks in again and gets tossed aside for his effort, but he still can't land a hit. She's not absorbing anything like Allura can but she's still blocking or dodging everything they throw at her.

Maybe they can wear her down, but he's not sure he has the energy to outmatch her.

Haggar is effectively surrounded by a barrier of lightning, now, so he falls back. He fires off his own lightning and feels Allura's eyes on him.

"What now?" she shouts.

"Keep going!" Sooner or later they _must_ have an opening—even Haggar isn't infallible. She can't be.

Allura edges closer. "We can't do this forever, Keith."

"We just need an opening," he pants. "Just one."

They dodge apart again and Keith keeps his eyes fixed on Haggar. He moves closer every chance he gets, but her defense is impenetrable. And Haggar is doing her best to keep him in Allura's way.

"Duck!" Allura shouts, and he drops to the sand. Light shoots above him again, meeting Haggar's like before, only this time the explosion of light is practically in his face. He shuts his eyes and army crawls towards Haggar, beneath her lightning—if the light blinds her, then maybe...

Allura screams. The lightning stops and Keith scrambles up to his feet—runs in, but he's still too far away, he can't reach—Haggar lifts her hands—

The bolt hits him like a freight train, knocking the wind out of him and sending him skidding all the way back to Allura again. She's ashen and groaning in the sand, curled around her stomach, but an eye cracks open to look at him.

"Sorry," he wheezes, knocking his fist against her elbow. He brought her here to die, probably—he should've thought it through but all he could see was his mother getting hit, and he really thought…

He really thought together, they could do this.

He fights to push himself up but his ribcage screams in agony; he can't. Before he falls back again he sees Haggar approaching, leisurely. She knows they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

"Keith," Allura whispers, and thrusts her arm towards him, the one with the device still strapped to it. "She's after you. Go."

"No," he says. "No, you go. They need you."

"They need you, too."

He knows it's true. For the first time in a long time, he wishes it wasn't.

He tries to push himself up again, and manages to get to his knees, though his whole body rebels at the effort. Haggar stops to watch, just a few feet away, as Allura tries to get up too.

"You're just like your parents," Haggar says coldly. "They—"

There's a distant bang and a zing and Haggar recoils before they can hear just exactly how they're like their parents. Keith looks over and it's Lance, still back where they left him by the hoverbike—a rifle set over the back of it, aimed in their direction. In _her's._ He lifts a hand and waves at them, before leaning in to sight down the barrel again.

"What—" Haggar hisses, turning, and there's another gunshot that hits the sand at her feet before she's more than taken a step in his direction.

Keith takes a deep breath, even though it hurts. Haggar's here, she's distracted; this is his opening. He just has to get up and use it. Just has to get to his feet. He can do this. He _has_ to.

One foot in the sand, as Haggar shrieks in anger and another bullet slices through her robes. Hands pushing him up, legs steadying beneath him. Knife firm in his grip. Lift, and swing.

He misses.

Keith falls to his knees in the sand again, close enough to hear Haggar's harsh breathing. She gives a raspy chuckle.

"Keith," Allura calls urgently. "Keith."

"Sorry, Allura," he says again. He should've at least said goodbye to Shiro before he came—should have realized he could die here. Should have told him everything, and now it's too late.

Another bullet stops Haggar from approaching him, and Allura speaks again.

"Keith," she says, "get down."

He's not in Lance's way, and Allura's down too, and Haggar's too close for it to make a difference. But he does anyway—flops back into the sand and waits for whatever's coming.

What comes is a barrage of blue-white bolts of light, forcing Haggar back behind a barrier of lightning again. Keith cranes his neck back and sees the familiar colors.

He _was_ in Lance's way; _his_ Lance. And his Hunk, too, with Pidge and Shiro and Matt behind them—his team, inexplicably here.

"Don't worry, Allura, Keith," Lance says, marching past them with the rest in tow. "We got this."

Shiro stops and crouches at Keith's side and takes his hand.

"You really scared us, you know," he says. "But we're here now."

"Oh God, I love you," Keith says, because he's got a lot to say but only the breath for what's important. "Don't die."

Shiro smiles. "I won't," he says, "and neither will you."

He helps him up, and helps Allura up too, and guides them to support each other. And then he heads off to join the others—Pidge and Matt and Hunk and Lance and other Lance in the distance, throwing everything they've got into finishing what the two of them couldn't.

"We ought to help," Allura says tiredly, and Keith nods.

"If we could," he says. "But they can handle it, now, I think." They certainly have her pressed—and everything he's got left that isn't keeping him standing is going into keeping her here. He nudges Allura. "Besides, you should save your energy. I want you to show me some of that Altean magic stuff later."

She doesn't respond, but out of the corner of her eye, he sees her smile.

* * *

The moment Haggar collapses it's like a weight drops out of Keith's lungs. The others gather cautiously, keeping their distance—she's still breathing, though prone, and he can sense she's still alive. Weakened, slipping, but still dangerous. He breathes deep.

"Stay back," he calls to them, and gets a few thumbs up in response.

When she goes, it's in a blaze—an explosion that knocks them all off their feet, but with more force than fire.

He helps Allura back up, and they go to join the rest.

"Keith!" Pidge is the first to approach and fling her arms around him. Hunk joins too, and Allura gets folded in when Shiro and Lance join as well. Even Matt clings on, and the whole group sways.

"Hey, guys," Keith says tiredly. "Thanks. How'd you get here?"

"Our transporter," says Pidge.

"We finished it. You could've waited for us," Hunk says.

"I was in a hurry. Mom was fighting her."

The whole group tenses. "Is she okay?" Shiro asks in his ear.

"She's alive, last I knew." Keith nods back in the direction he came—and other Lance and his hoverbike, still waiting in the distance. "She's at the Garrison."

"This is the world you came from?" Allura asks.

"Is that me?" Lance asks.

"Yes and yes." He pauses. "You guys were in battle, weren't you? Fighting Zarkon?"

"We couldn't kill him," Shiro says, and Keith's chest constricts again. "But we have him cornered."

"He's surrounded by rebels!" Matt adds. "It's just a matter of time."

Keith wiggles and the group finally loosens, though Shiro stays at his shoulder. "That's a start," he says.

"Are we just gonna like, leave her there?" Hunk nods back to Haggar's... remains. There's not much left but ash. "Are we even sure she's dead?"

Keith hops over to her—and walking through nothing even for moment gives him a shiver now, but he can do it—and looks. There's not much he can tell other than that she's not blocking him anymore, but if that means she's dead, he'll take it.

So he hops back. "Pretty sure she's dead, yeah."

Shiro makes an exasperated noise and grips his shoulder, but the Holts laugh. Lance is still looking over at his other self.

"Hey, is it gonna be weird if I go meet myself?" he says. "'Cause I kinda want to."

"I didn't explain anything to him," Keith warns.

Lance cracks his knuckles. "Leave it to me." And he starts walking. The others turn to watch, but Shiro tugs Keith aside.

"I'm sorry we fought without you," he says. "We had the opportunity and we had to take it; there wasn't time to wait."

Keith shakes his head. "I'm glad you did. I was worried you'd need me."

"I need you," Shiro says immediately, then shakes his head. "Wait, no, I'm trying to—I mean that I don't want you to think you aren't part of the team. And what you were doing was important, too. Keeping Haggar distracted really saved us—not that that's what you were intentionally doing, but..."

By the time he trails off, Keith is grinning.

"I get it, Shiro," he says, and pulls him down for a kiss.

"Okay," Shiro says when they surface. "Okay." He cups Keith's face. "Your markings are gone again. I guess it was a stress thing."

Keith blinks. "My what?"

"You had Altean markings, when you came and got Allura. You didn't know?"

Keith gapes. "No! But I think Allura tried to tell me." He reaches up to touch his cheeks, then just lays his hands over Shiro's. "Huh."

Shiro smiles. "Huh, indeed."

"Oh, shut up," Keith says, and looks away. The Lances are both talking animatedly by the hoverbike now, but the rest have turned their attention to poking at the device on Allura's arm—probably trying to get all the sand out of it.

"Are you coming back with us?" Shiro asks after a moment.

"No. I have to go get my mom." Keith looks back up at him. "And I want to check back in on all the places I went before—see if I saved anyone."

Shiro raises his eyebrows. "Shouldn't you take a break? You've had a rough day."

But Keith shakes his head. "I won't be able to relax until I know, one way or another."

"Fair enough." Shiro pulls him closer. "Stay safe," he says into Keith's hair.

"I will," Keith promises. "And I'll come back when I'm done, I promise."

"I'll hold you to that." Shiro steps away and smiles, and nods to the Garrison. "Go do what you need to, Keith. I'll be waiting."

So Keith heads off—goes and grabs the other hoverbike, the one he'd left here before, and walks it back towards the Lances. They're still chatting, and he thumps his Lance on the back to get his attention.

"Time to go," he says as Lance sputters.

"So you can go to alternate realities, huh," the other Lance says. "Explains a lot."

"Yeah."

"And shoot lightning out of your hands."

"That part's new."

He laughs. Paladin Lance pouts.

"We're going already? But we just _got_ here."

"Come back and visit sometime. You'll wreak absolute havoc."

Both Lances grin at that, and they turn to each other and exchange some kind of complicated handshake.

"Looking forward to it," other Lance says. "Keith, were you gonna come back and see your mother? I can get you in easy."

"He can just teleport there," Lance says.

"I have to bring the hoverbike back," Keith says.

"Fair enough." Lance waves and turns. "Bye, other me! See ya, Keith!"

"Do me proud!" other Lance shouts after him. Maybe they shouldn't've let them meet after all; oh well. Keith gets on the bike.

True to his word, Lance waves him in through baffled security, and so it's a painless trip down to the infirmary. What he finds there is less so.

"She's in critical condition," the doctor says, and she looks it: battered and bruised and covered in tubes and wires, eyes shut, breathing shallow. Keith curses himself; he should've grabbed the dimension hopper and sent Allura back with the rest—but no, she'd have to be conscious to use it. Then the transporter? But he doesn't know how it works, and he could go back and ask, but he doesn't want to leave her here and he doesn't know what to do if it won't work. After all, he can only take what he can wear—he can't bring her back with him.

But then, he's done a lot of things today that he thought he couldn't do. Maybe it's time for one more miracle.

He's still exhausted from the fight, but he scoops her up off the bed anyway, despite the doctor’s protests. He thinks hard about what he wants to do—to take her with him, to the Castle infirmary, where a healing pod can save her. To bring not just himself, but something outside himself.

He thinks hard, and he _goes._

The darkness is brief, and then he's greeted by the cool lights of the Castle. His legs fail beneath him, but his mother's still in his arms and when they go down she hits his chest instead of the floor. They made it home, both of them.

He passes out.

* * *

Keith wakes up in bed. It's dark, almost as pitch black as the place between universes, but the surface beneath him is soft and Shiro's snoring softly next to him. He has no idea how long he's been out but maybe, maybe this means the team found them before it was too late.

But he has to know, so he carefully rolls out of bed, listening for any disturbance in Shiro's breathing, and slips out of the door.

Coran's still awake in the infirmary, so it's probably not that late at night; he comes over immediately when he sees Keith and takes his arm.

"You ought to be resting," he scolds, but nevertheless leads him to the pods; Erolia's in one, peaceful and looking much better already. Keith breathes again.

"As you can see," Coran says, softer, "she'll be fine."

"I said we'd come back safe," Keith whispers.

"So you did." Coran helps him sit, and settles down next to him. "So! How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Keith says, and then actually thinks about it. "Okay, everything hurts, and I still have stuff to do. But I'm okay."

"Good, good." Coran claps him on the back. "No remaining angst over your newfound heritage?"

"I don't know how I'm supposed to get over Haggar being my grandmother, so I was planning on just sort of moving on," Keith admits. "But the Altean thing has done me good lately."

Coran chuckles. "So it has! Now." He puts his hands on his knees and stands with a grunt, and offers Keith a hand up. "Back to bed with you. You still need rest."

"Yeah." Keith takes the hand up without complaint. "Just wanted to make sure she was okay. I don't want to lose any more family tonight."

Coran raises an eyebrow. "We haven't killed Zarkon yet."

Keith shakes his head. "He's blood, not family. Goodnight, Coran."

Coran smiles. "Goodnight, Keith."

Keith heads back to bed. He climbs back in carefully, reaches out in the dark and puts a hand on Shiro's chest, feels it rise and fall steadily. Up, and down, warm, alive.

This, this is home.

"You're family, too," he whispers.

"Glad to hear it," Shiro whispers back, and Keith sits straight up.

"I thought you were _asleep_ ," he accuses, and Shiro chuckles sleepily.

"I was," he says thickly. "You went to check on your mother?"

"Yeah." Keith lets Shiro pull him back down and pillows his head on his shoulder. "She's gonna be okay."

"That's good," Shiro mumbles. Keith lifts his head again.

"Hey," he says. "Um."

"You can always tell me what's bothering you, remember?" Shiro's voice is slurred and barely audible, but Keith gets the gist of it.

"Haggar's my grandmother," he says all in one breath. "I... guess Zarkon's my grandfather. God, I didn't even think of that."

"...Oh." Shiro sounds more awake now. He shifts to wrap his arms a little tighter around Keith. "Weird."

"That's all you have to say? It's weird?"

"Well, it is." Shiro rubs his back. "Do you not think so?"

"Of course it's weird that Zarkon's my grandpa, what do you—no?"

Shiro just keeps rubbing his back. "Does it bother you?"

Keith pushes himself up. "Doesn't it bother _you?_ "

"It's your family, not mine."

"Yeah, but they—what Haggar _did_ to you—"

"That wasn't you." Shiro sits up, spilling Keith into his lap and gathering him into his arms. "You did none of that, Keith. She hurt you, too."

Keith buries his face in Shiro's neck, because he's right, technically, but it doesn't feel right for Shiro to be so calm about it, to hold him so close knowing whose blood runs in his veins.

"If it bothers you, that's fine," Shiro adds softly in his ear. "But don't let it be on my account. I love _you,_ no matter what."

"I love you, too." There's a lot he has to think about, a lot he has to learn, so much left to do and get used to and understand, but this, at least, he knows. He loves Shiro, and nothing can change that.

* * *

* * *

 

**Epilogue**

 

Shiro's office is a mess, back in Atlantis, but it’s as bright and airy as ever, and there are servants tidying it up and the prince Keith didn't recognize overseeing them. He puts a hand to his sword but doesn't draw it.

"Is the danger passed?" he asks cautiously.

"It is," Keith says. "Was anyone hurt?"

"A few guards," says the prince. "No one you mentioned."

So in at least one place, he was successful—mostly successful. Keith nods.

"All I needed to know," he says, and moves on.

* * *

Shiro's smithy is destroyed in the next universe, but here Keith finds Shiro himself, picking through the ruins. He looks up as Keith approaches.

"Thanks for the warning," he says. "I guess it could've been a lot worse, huh?"

"Much. Was anyone hurt?" Much of the village is in the same state as the smithy, but there are plenty of people milling around.

"Only property. No people." Shiro eyes him. "Were _you_ hurt?"

"...Not permanently. Can't say the same for the one who did this."

Shiro nods. "As it should be. I'll tell Lance you survived after all."

"Tell him I said thank you for saving me, too," Keith says. “And, good luck, Shiro.” And he leaves.

* * *

The Metroplex doesn't look any different than usual, which isn't saying much, because the lower city is dirty and in ruins on its best days. But Keith hunts down Pidge easily enough, in a bunker on the far side of the city, along with her brother and Hunk.

"He lives!" Matt declares after Keith pops into their living room. "You made it sound so dire, Pidge."

"It _was_ dire," Pidge says. "Wasn't it, Keith?"

"It was, but it's over now," he confirms. "Did you all get to safety?"

"I haven't been able to contact Lance for some time," Allura says from the speaker on the wall, and everyone's smiles drop. "Will you check on him, Keith?"

"Yeah," Keith says, and goes.

He was really hoping that here, too, everyone would be safe—but when he goes to Lance, he finds his body. His hideout is a wreck. His wristband lies cracked in his hand, fingers still curled loosely around it—like he'd broken it before he died. Trying to keep Haggar from finding the others, maybe, but there's no way for Keith to know for sure.

He goes back to Pidge's gravely.

"No," he says heavily. "She got him."

There's a long silence. Then Allura speaks.

"We had spoken about preserving his mind, should something happen, not long ago," she says. "I kept a copy. It's some months out of date, and he would be functionally an AI, but it's something. It's what he wanted, at least."

"It won't be the same," Hunk says into his hands.

"No, it won't." Pidge sighs. "I think we need to grieve first, Allura."

"Of course," Allura says quietly. "Thank you, Keith."

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more," he says, but Pidge waves him off.

"You have other stuff going on," she says. "We all know that. You ever gonna come visit again?"

"Probably not," Keith admits, "but it was nice to see you again." He doesn't know what else to say, so he leaves it at that, and moves on.

* * *

In the space pirate universe, he can't find his friends at all, dead _or_ alive. He knows that Hunk had been working on something to block psychics—after the technomancer incident—and he's a little disturbed that it works against him, if that's what it is. Still, he checks their usual haunting grounds, and their ship, which has been all but obliterated. No bodies, though.

If he can't find them, Haggar couldn't either. He'd like to verify for himself, but he can come back some other time, maybe—and maybe grab plans for that psychic blocker thing, just in case. And besides, he owes Lance a suit of armor. He moves on.

* * *

Keith lands in a mess of elves in Olkarion, nearly all of whom startle and move to attack. He holds up hands quickly.

"Wait, wait," he says. "I came earlier to warn Shiro there'd be an attack."

"I saw him," a guard says, and the rest lower their weapons. Keith looks around; there's clearly been a fight, here in the courtyard, and he sees no bodies but that doesn't mean there weren't any.

"How did it... go?" he asks. "Did Shiro and the others escape?"

The guard shakes his head. "He and his squad chose to stay and fight, rather than let others be hurt in their place."

Keith was afraid of that—he's not surprised it happened here. He only wishes it hadn't.

"Thanks," he says. "And I’m sorry." And he moves on.

* * *

Something instinctually stops Keith from heading to the cruise ship directly, and so with a sinking feeling he aims for a lifeboat instead. He lands on one bobbing in the middle of the ocean, amongst a small fleet of them, and the passengers aboard scream. One flings a cell phone at him.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he says over them, rubbing his arm where the phone hit. "I just wanna know if everyone got off okay."

"Oh, it's you." A crew member Keith vaguely recognizes stands, bracing herself against the lifeboat's wall. "All the passengers made it off. Katie said you said someone was coming."

Keith looks out at the other lifeboats. "I take it she came. Did Katie make it off?"

She pauses. "She... stayed back. Along with Hunk and Lance and Shiro. They said they'd hold her off..."

Here, too, then. Keith sighs. “Of course.”

"At least they died as heroes." She offers it emptily, looking out at the lifeboats, too. He knows the feeling.

"They did," he says. "I hope you remember them that way. All of you." He looks around at the other passengers, all staring and silent. "Take care of yourselves. Tell the people you love that you love them. You never know what's gonna happen."

He picks up the phone at his feet and offers it in the direction it came from, and a young woman takes it, looking up at him with wide eyes. These people will probably never have to deal with magic or otherworldly villains again—with time, they'll probably convince themselves it was an engine failure, or some other excuse.

He's glad he's not one of them, anymore. The truth may be scary, but it's better than living a lie.

"Good luck," he says, and goes home.

**Author's Note:**

> heres a list of things i accidentally lied about in the comments on how to be anything but alone:  
> \- keith isnt galra at all (hes 1/4th)  
> \- keith will never meet himself (he does, albeit under duress)  
> \- keith isnt from the universe he chose (he sorta is, tho not born there)  
> in my defense, i didnt know what i was doing :')
> 
> anyway you can find me at [maternalcube](http://maternalcube.tumblr.com/) and feel free to send me sheith prompts whenever, though i guarantee ill be slow as hell about filling them. love u all byeeee


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